The secrets we keep
by YAY13
Summary: 'Me and Robin were best friends. More than that. We were brothers. Techno geek and Science nerd against the world.' That all changed when I began to date a girl from Gotham and realised that I didn't know my brother at all.
1. The argument

Been toying with this idea for a while. I think it's okay. Please review and tell me what you think.

I don't own Young Justice as much as I would like to!

* * *

Kid Flash's POV

"Another argument?" I questioned as Robin walked in and flopped onto the couch, defeated.

"Yeah." he murmured back, not even looking at me.

Batman and Robin had been getting into a lot of arguments recently. Normally they were about Batman refusing to let Robin tell us who he was or about 'normal life'. I have put 'normal life' the way I have because that life isn't normal to us. Super heroing is. Their arguments normally started with Batman growling and then Robin shouting then Superman trying to intervene then insults or kryptonite being thrown at him then one of the dynamic duo storming away to moan about the other to either me or Wonder Woman.

"So what was it about this time?" I asked because if I got the answer out of Robin quickly we could go and get something to eat.

"Stuff." Robin mumbled.

"What sort of stuff?"

"Family stuff." the boy growled.

He shifted round and I knew that I was getting at answer. He looked me in the eyes. I couldn't see his eyes because he was wearing sunglasses over them but I could tell he was angry.

"Everything I do just isn't enough for him, isn't _good_ enough for him. One minute it's put trust in your team and then it's don't trust anyone. It's jump high but that's too high or do well at school but that's too good."

"You get told off for doing too well at school!" I gasped.

"Yeah. He says me being too intelligent puts my identity at risk."

"It shows he cares about you."

"But I want him to just be whelmed. It's like he can do Batman and be a great Batman but when it comes to being a dad he's..."

"Not feeling the aster?" I suggested with a smirk.

Robin nodded and I was proud I had managed to extract a smile from my best friend.

"Do you want to watch some reality TV and find people who are possibly in a worse off situation than you?" I asked. "And we could get some snacks."

Robin nodded and I left to get some snacks. I left Robin to turn on the TV and find a good channel. I had rushed around the kitchen because, after an argument with Batman, Robin was normally cornered by his 'aunts' and 'uncles' in the League and offered support that the boy didn't want or need. When I was there, they tended to leave him be. I picked up Robin's favourite food and placed them on a tray. There's a supply of everyone's favourite food for situations like this apart from mine is locked in a safe that few people know the combination to so I can't steal it.

"Rob, I've got..." I said, walking in.

Robin stormed past me, walking out. He knocked into me and I dropped the tray.

"Rob?" I called down the corridor.

Robin didn't answer me. My first reaction was to pick up the food but then best friend Wally took over and I moved into the room, studying the TV screen. On it was a news channel. It was talking about some sort of murderer breaking out of a Gotham city prison.

_That's strange. Robin never gets so worked up about low level criminals like that. _I thought, barely recognising the name.

When Robin stared crime fighting at the age of nine, six long years ago, he put away a mob boss. This mob boss had ordered murders and committed crimes in Gotham for years but Batman had been too busy with other criminals to deal with him. When Robin had come along, they had focused their attentions on the mob boss and had him locked away within two months. He was Robin's first and there was something very meaningful about the first criminal a crime fighter arrested but no one would react like Robin had done. It was like there was a hidden rage and sorrow fixed around the name Tony Zucco.

.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Robin bellowed.

He was standing in front of Batman and the League. Normally no one would have the guts to face them all like that with such anger but Robin was like that. I had crept over and was standing round the corner, occasionally peeking round.

"Because I knew you would react like this." Batman answered simply.

"I'm only reacting like this because you didn't tell me!" the teenager roared back.

Robin was only fifteen but, man, did he roar as loud as a lion. I winced and I was behind a protective wall.

"Robin, go back to the..." Batman began.

"I would have told you straight away if it was Chill." Robin hissed, his voice dropping to a deadly whisper.

I didn't recognise the name but it was clear by the reactions of the other members of the League that what Robin had just said was about to draw results. There always seemed to be a line in Batman and Robin's arguments but some comments crossed that line; that was one of them. A few members of the League looked interested, a few looked worried and a few looked like they were on hand to break up a violent fight. Batman turned to them and sent them all away. The adults all left except for Batman. He clearly wanted some alone time with his child. I watched from the door.

"I'm sorry, kiddo. I really am. I thought you would be in danger if you knew." Batman said, hugging Robin against his strong chest.

That was when I noticed that there were two glistening vertical tracks down Robin's cheeks.

_Robin's crying._ I thought.

Me and Robin were best friends. More than that. We were brothers. Techno geek and Science nerd against the world. At first I was going to rush in with the speed of light and comfort him. He was only a few months young than me but I was very protective. Then I realised how Robin would feel if he knew I had been spying on him during his moment of weakness. Conversations about family matters between Batman and Robin were for the League's ears only. A conversation they were excluded from certainly wasn't for me.

"I miss them so much." Robin whispered into Batman's chest.

"I know you do." Batman replied and half carried, half walked Robin to the Zeta tubes.


	2. The ball

I still don't own Young Justice.

Please review!

By the way, the whole story is in Wally's POV in case it says otherwise.

* * *

When the alarm sounds for a meeting, you're meant to rush. I didn't that time. I guessed Robin wouldn't be there and even if he was he wouldn't be his normal self. I had no idea who he meant by _them_ but they seemed pretty important to him. Despite not rushing, I got to the meeting room before which ever adult had summoned us. I was met by the faces of M'gann, Artemis, Superboy and Kaldur. Me and Artemis had dated once. It wasn't awkward between us any more because Robin had helped us both through it but I often found myself wondering whether I still had feelings for her. Me and Kaldur had a good friendship; Kaldur was our leader despite him believing it was Robin's place. We both had bonded over trust in Robin and in turn worry for our little bird. Me and Superboy had a strange friendship. Me, Robin and Kaldur had rescued him from Camdus and set him and M'gann up on their first date – which had been a great idea on all our parts.

I had just taken my seat when Batman walked in.

"Where's Robin?" Artemis asked, looking worried.

"He's no in any danger, is he?" Superboy added.

"It's okay, I'm here." Robin said from where he had silently slipped into a chair next to me.

Even I jumped and I had known he was there. He offered us all a proud smile.

"Hey." I said and we fist bumped.

"That's where the fatal flaw in us dating laid," Artemis joked, "you could never love me as much as you love Robin."

I grinned and Robin grinned too.

"That's why it's called a bromance." I told her.

"Only for you two, it's minus the 'B', Baywatch." Artemis smirked.

"If only." Robin sniggered and pulled me into a hug.

As we both sat there, hugging as a joke, I could sense Batman moving forwards to separate us. He was protective over Robin but Batman probably threatened to snap the neck of every suitor for his baby bird.

"Jealous much, Artemis?" Robin asked when we pulled away.

If Artemis had been about to reply, she was stopped by M'gann giggling. We all turned to face her and then she smiled.

"Can I show you what I was thinking?" she asked.

We all nodded. Suddenly, in our heads, there was a ginger version of Robin, hopping up and down at super speed.

"Hello," the product of M'gann's imagination said, "I'm Robin West, the son of Kid Flash and Robin. Look, I'm ginger!"

Soon the image was gone but, when I looked at Robin, I saw a smile dancing across his face. Batman didn't look amused but didn't tell the group off.

"As you all know," he began, "Gotham City holds an annual police charity masked ball. This charity ball is going to be held tomorrow night at Wayne Manor. Among the guests there will be some of the richest millionaires in America as well as most of the Gotham City law enforcement who aren't on duty."

"This ball is normally a target for your B-level criminal." Robin added. "But this year a very certain criminal seems to have the ball in his sights."

"Tony Zucco." Batman growled. "An old mob boss, arrested six years ago for murdering two-thirds of the Flying Graysons, he was convicted for dozens of counts of murder and numerous counts of kidnapping, blackmail and thievery. He was sentenced to life but recently broke from jail and seems to be targeting this ball. We have no idea of his real motive but there are lots of possibilities."

"He could be simply after the money they raise there." Artemis said.

Being from Gotham, she had probably heard lots about these balls. I had guessed there would be lots of money there from the fact that it was being held at Wayne Manor, suggesting Bruce Wayne would be there. That guy was loaded.

"He could, but Zucco isn't always out for money, sometimes it's revenge." Batman said, glancing at Robin who refused to return the look he was giving him. "He could be after the surviving member of the Graysons."

I didn't understand why he was looking at Robin but I guessed it was because Robin had some link to the Graysons. For all I knew, Robin could have be a friend of the Grayson kid.

"As it is a masked ball, you will all be going undercover at the party. You will be attending the party under fake names." Batman said, handing out a few envelopes.

"Inside these you will find your undercover identities; keep these secret from anyone else in the team. I don't want you interacting with anyone in a way your roles wouldn't do."

I looked at my envelope and slid my fingers under the fold. When I opened it, I was pleasantly surprised. I was to be the son of two millionaires who's rich parents couldn't attend so I had been sent alone. My undercover name was Cameron Gates. I scanned the team, studying their reactions, the girls were both smiling, Superboy was frowning and Kaldur looked neutral. Then my gaze fell on Robin. He didn't have an envelope. I made my concerns clear.

"Me, Robin and Batgirl will be patrolling the rest of Gotham in case Zucco attacks somewhere we are not expecting." Batman informed us all.

Robin shot me a smile and told me that he would be on hand if anything kicked off.

"You'll each be given a budget and you will need to buy a disguise with. Fittings and high speed orders are ready at a tailors for the boys and Diana has volunteered to take the girls dress shopping." Batman finished.

"But we don't know anything about suits." Superboy moaned.

"I know a lot about suits." Robin smirked. "I'm going with you to make sure that you all pick things suitable for your character."

"After the fittings, Robin will brief you on Zucco's known henchmen but you need to be on the look out for anything and everything." Batman said and left.

I turned to Robin. I had a bad feeling about the smile that was toying with his lips.

"Please be merciful, oh, great, friendly, brother of mine." I begged.

.

Robin knew his suits. He knew every make and every style, back to front and inside out. He looked at our characters and then lead us to other sections in the shop, telling us about every type. He left us all very confused. When Kaldur had asked the difference between each suit, Robin had just thrown some technical language at him, smirked and then run off to help Superboy. While the others might have not known what that meant, I did.

"You're embarrassed." I reported to him, ruffling my ginger hair. "You know a lot about posh clothes and it embarrasses you."

"Yeah." Robin said, with no attempt to lie.

"How do you know all this stuff?" I asked.

Robin turned away from me at my question and began to search through one of the rails of suits. He was dressed in civvies with his sunglasses over his eyes and his black hair under a cap, looking completely out of place in a suit shop.

_He looks out of place no matter where he is as Robin._ I thought, barely catching Robin's answer.

"Clothing fibres."

"Come again?"

"Clothing fibres. Batman makes me learn about every suit so I can tell what a criminal is wearing and we can use it to lessen the list of suspects, in that there is clothing fibres and suit types." Robin answered.

"But Gotham criminals don't go round in suits that my uncle couldn't afford with a year's wages." I pointed out.

"You'd be surprised. Zucco wears one of those." Robin said, pointing at one of the suit designs he was getting me to try on.

"But..."

"Don't worry, Zucco is quite a few sizes bigger than you; if it's a competition like girls wearing the same dresses, you'll look better." Robin remarked.

I wasn't sure whether to thank him or slap him. I was about to do both when Robin suddenly reached into a rucksack he had been wearing and produced a green tie. He wrapped it around my neck.

"I don't know how to do a tie." I told him.

"You're the science nerd, learn." Robin cackled, at my shocked expression. "Oh, the green really brings out your eyes."

.

The next day had come. I was looking smooth when a rented limo pulled up outside my pick up point. My ginger hair was as neat as it could go, looking like I had tried but was still being casual and my suit was perfect. I was wearing a crisp, freshly ironed white shirt and a suit jacket. I was also wearing jacket trousers. They had been made that day and were still warm from the work done on them. I had a pair of sunglasses over my eyes, going for a movie star or Bruce Wayne sort of appearance. Bruce Wayne and his kid would be there, at the party, and I wasn't sure whether I wanted to meet them or not. As I got into the limo, I checked that the driver couldn't hear me and then produced my radio.

"Okay, Robin, I'm on route. Anything I need to know about your city?"

"If someone starts shooting at you, get down." Robin joked.

"Why can't I go on patrol with you?" I whimpered, dreading the party.

There was so much I could do wrong. I wasn't really undercover material; I was more go in as Kid Flash.

"Because Batman likes me and he doesn't like you." Robin replied.

"Tell me something I don't already know."

"Don't use both hands when you're eating, it makes you look like a pig and millionaires pick up on things like that."

I blushed because Robin seemed to have been the only person who had picked up on how I ate with both hands. At least he was the only person who felt comfortable enough around me to tell me about it.

"Keep your mask on and act like you own the place, _Cameron_." Robin laughed over the radio.

I checked my mask was in place. It was a domino mask, like Robin's apart from it was meant to draw attention to my eyes. There were green swirls dancing round it and bits of glitter sparkling over it. Robin had implied that he had picked the masks but I doubted that highly. Robin didn't know enough about high society.

"Name doesn't suit you by the way. I told Batman you could go as Wallace but..."

"Robin, we have a rule about that word." I snapped.

Me and Robin did have a rule. If Robin called me by my full name then Robin had to blow a kiss at Superman the next time they saw each other. It confused the Kryptonian and made Robin go a lovely shade of red.

"Okay, I'll do it."

There was a pause and it seemed like Robin was going to say something more into the radio. Then Batman's voice came over, telling Robin that it was time to go. I sighed as I slipped the radio away and then I decided to radio Artemis.

"Hey, Arty." I said.

"Don't call me that, Baywatch. I'm on route. What about you?"

"Running late." Artemis admitted. "I don't know how my hair should go. These millionaires have stylists and..."

"A day to get ready?" I joked.

"A week." Artemis corrected. "Or at least it seems like they do. Take Bruce Wayne's kid..."

I began to stop listening as Artemis began to rant about how millionaires seemed to always look perfect. I was excited about the party but the same time nervous. The way Robin had reacted to Zucco escaping and the way Batman seemed very concerned over his partner didn't sit right with me. With the Joker, or any other criminal, Batman would tell Robin to sit out if he thought the boy was in too much danger. If Robin was in danger dealing with Zucco, surely Batman would do the same thing as always.

"Were you even listening, Baywatch?" Artemis asked after what seemed like a good ten minutes of her ranting and me trying to work out what was up with my best friend.

"No." I said truthfully and slipped the radio away before I heard her reply.

.

The strange thing about Wayne Manor is that it doesn't suit the person who lives there or seem like the setting for so many parties. Wayne Manor has a Gothic, dark outside with menacing iron gates and a structure that seemed to frown at visitors yet it is home to the welcoming and respectable Mr Wayne and is the location of monthly parties. Once a month, lights are strung up outside and in the hedges that littered the grounds. The manor is made into a welcoming place and it's large doors opened to guests. I was one of those guests, walking down the gravel drive way as a convoy of limos fought over places to park. The doors weren't opened by the guests but by a series of smartly dressed staff. One of them looked very familiar. The workers didn't wear masks, probably to make them stand out from the millionaires who never took theirs off. I was stopped by a smartly dressed young man who asked me for my name and who my parents were. I explained quickly and followed the stream of cops and millionaires into the main ball room. It was full of people, dressed in expensive dresses and masks. I walked over to one girl, one who seemed to be as awkward in the situation as I was. She was scanning the crowd for someone. As I came near her, she looked up and meet my eyes. She had ginger hair and brown eyes shining from behind a domino mask. She had a few freckles escaping out from the bottom of the mask. "Hello." she said with a kind smile. "Hi." I replied.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"I'm Cameron, Cameron Gates." I introduced myself, extending my hand.

The girl shook it but kept glancing through the crowd.

"Barbara Gordon." she beamed.

"Are you expecting someone?" I asked, looking around.

I was new to this. I didn't want to end up in some sort of fight with a rich millionaire boy.

"Just a friend of mine." Barbara answered, giving me her full attention. "I'm not really used to this sort of stuff. My friend is a lot better at it than me, not that it's really their walk of life either."

"Well, I don't really like these things either." I found myself truthfully replying. "Getting kinda worried, though, about this Zucco business. Why are they hosting this when there is a criminal on the lose?"

"This is Gotham, if we put everything off until there wasn't a criminal on the lose we would never get anything done." she said, then paused. "I should know." she muttered under her breath as if she didn't mean for me to hear it.

A good undercover agent might have let it pass and used it in later detective work. I was not a good undercover agent so I asked her straight away what she meant. She frowned for a few seconds before seeming to have got her story straight.

"I'm the police commissioner's daughter. I get, like, one night a year with him and the rest either he's busy or I've been kidnapped by criminals so..." Barbara trailed off. "I better go and find my friend."

Then the girl disappeared into the crowd. I watched her go and considered going after her. I decided against it in a heart beat.

.

The party was passing slowly with nothing much happening at all. It was getting rather boring. I scanned the guests looking for someone who could possibly be from the team. We were all wearing masks but I was sure that at least one of them would have done something to give themselves away to someone who knew what they were looking for. Then a heavenly aroma drifted around me. I turned and my eyes settled on the food table. I say table but it was more like seven tables pushed into one long line. There was no a space on the white table cloth that wasn't home to a culinary delight. I smiled and slowly made my way through the crowd of masked faces. I was drawing near the table when I noticed a girl with long ebony hair standing beside it. She was dressed in a light blue dress and a white full face mask. The mask made her face look like one that had come straight off a china doll, beautiful but mysterious.

"Hey." I said as I walked over.

Afterwards I internally winced; I was at a fancy ball, no one would say 'hey'.

"Hey." the girl replied, surprising me.

Despite it being half hidden by her mask, I could tell the smile she rewarded me with was one of the few perfect ones. I felt a blush touch my cheeks and wondered if the small domino mask covered it up.

_How does Robin hide emotion in one of these things? It offers no protection._ I thought as my hand gently danced towards one of my burning cheeks.

To stop me from drawing attention to my rather obvious blushing, I angled my hand towards a nice looking cake. The girl stopped me with a shake of her head.

"This is your first time, right?" she asked. "Take it from someone who knows, Mrs Roberts' cakes look nice but that's about all that's nice about them. I had to learn that the hard way."

Her voice was not what I had expected. I had expected posh pronunciation and a patronising tone that would stop me from getting any further attracted to the girl. Instead, the girl had an implacable but always present accent and seemed to have made it her mission to welcome me. She began to steer me towards different types of food, listing their good points and bad points, remarking about the cooks and their manners.

"You know your food." I remarked when she was done.

It was meant to have been a compliment but as soon as I had said it I wasn't sure if she would think I was implying she was fat.

"Only this sort of food. Normally I just eat what I'm given." she smirked, her eyes glancing around playfully as if expecting a scolding.

"You make it soon like I'm a bad cook." an elderly man dressed in a smart suit said, as if on clue.

His lack of a mask signalled him to be one of the staff and the fact that he was close to my new found friend showed that he was probably someone who had helped out a lot. I mentally thanked Robin for my detective skills and the opportunity to impress this girl.

"You're a great cook." the girl said, quickly but sincerely. "I don't know what I would do without you."

"Perhaps you could spend you time cooking your own meals tomorrow and then you could find out." the elderly man said with a smirk.

The girl smiled and the old man looked towards me. He greeted me and then told my friend that he had to continue to mingle with a tray of food.

"See ya round." the girl called after him.

She was quickly corrected into saying 'you' but I had a feeling she wouldn't.

"Was that your dad?" I asked, drawing on my conclusions.

It was a man who cooked for her and cared for her but also had the authority to correct her and still be challenged by her. It made me think of him being her father.

"No, more like grandfather. That's Alfred, my family's butler."

"You have a butler?" I exclaimed.

"No, my dad has a butler and he took sympathy on me when I nearly gave myself food poisoning cooking my own meal."

"But a butler?" I continued.

I didn't know anyone rich enough to buy the designer dress the girl was wearing, let alone have a butler. (BTW I only know the dress was designer because Artemis and M'gann were looking at them one time.)

"Yeah." the girl laughed. "I was like that the first time I met him."

"But a butler? A sirs and madam sort of penguin suit butler?"

"One more line of ranting to come and then the news will have settled in." the girl predicted through her laughter.

"A Jarvisly sort of it's always the butler sort of butler."

I sighed, paused and then grouped my thoughts of amazement. "So you have a butler." I thought out loud. "Who are you?"

"I could ask you the same." the girl countered, clicking her tongue.

"I'm Wally, Wally West."

My real name came out before I had chance to remember my real one. I frowned and looked at the girl, expecting to feel as if I screwed up the entire mission.

_How am I meant to explain that I am at a police charity ball is I am normal, everyday Wally West?_

But telling her my name had seemed so right. So, so right.

"You're Barry Allen's nephew." the girl replied. "Didn't he get his invitation?" _Why would my uncle be invited to something like this. Don't get me wrong, he's great in the police force but not...?_

"He sent me in his place. He's always working is my uncle." I lied, quickly, hoping it would be pulled off.

It was. The girl smiled and nodded.

"So who are you?" I asked.

"You don't know."

"That's why I'm asking."

The girl gave a laugh and then looked me in the eyes, straight in the eyes, for the first time. Her eyes were a perfect blue. I could feel myself falling into them.

"I know this sounds crazy, like Joker crazy, but would you mind if I didn't tell you, just for a while. It's just that everyone knows who I am all the time now and I want to have a little bit of time where I can do what I want, say what I want and be who I want around someone other than my dad and my butler."

"Okay." I agreed.

I could understand where she was coming from. I was having to pretend to be all prim and proper for this party alone and I hated it. If her father was rich, and it was clear he was, she probably did this all too often.

"Thanks." she said.

Her blue eyes danced around the ball room, scanning it.

"You know what, we should go and explore the manor." she squealed.

"Won't Mr Wayne mind?" I asked as the girl began to hurry towards a door that lead out from the ballroom.

I followed her, looking a bit lost.

"No, me and Mr Wayne are um... Personal friends."

At first I thought of resisting. I was meant to be looking out for criminals at the party, not running off and having fun with a girl I had only jut met. If Batman saw me he would kill me. On the other hand, criminals might be planning to go through the manor to attack and there was a large section of the team monitoring the party itself so I doubted anything would go wrong if I did a perimeter search with my new found friend. Even if she didn't know about what we were doing.

.

The ballroom had been so full of people, it was hard to believe that we were still in the same house as we walked through almost silent corridors. I took in everything, taking in the girl's smile and keen eyes. She loved every minute of what was happening. She loved the look of amazement that danced across my face.

"When I first saw the place, I was like that. How can one man, his kid and his butler own this whole place?"

"By being very, very rich." I found myself saying.

Oil paintings of the Wayne family stared down at me, suits of armour guarded nearly every doorway and priceless vases, statues and artwork rested on pedestals. Yes, Bruce Wayne was very, very rich.

"You say that like it's always a good thing. The amount of times Bruce's kid is kidnapped... Just because your dad drives around in a sports car doesn't mean you want to spend your birthday tied to a chair in the middle of a warehouse."

"Grayson's fifteenth?" I queried, just to make sure we were on the right page.

"Yeah and what with Zucco out, Grayson had to convince Bruce to let them even within ten feet of anyone else. It's good to feel cared for but..." the girl trailed off.

Then she stopped in the middle of the corridor and turned to me with a daredevil smile on her lips. The smile reminded me of Robin; the way he saw some adventures as a thrill, a buzz.

"Do you want to go up onto the roof?"

.

At first I thought that, by 'the roof', the girl had meant some sort of glass ceilinged room or possibly going up a set of stairs to a rooftop balcony. She didn't. There were several spare bedrooms on the top floor and one had the bed pressed against the wall under the window. The girl slid open the window and smiled as it clicked to show it was completely open.

"Do you want to go first?" she asked.

"This is stupid, we'll get ourselves killed." I groaned.

Normally I would be up for it, but normally meant I could use my powers and that I was with Robin, who was trained to do stuff similar to what the girl was suggesting.

"Stop being a chicken, Wally." she teased, "I'll go first and help you up."

Suddenly the girl swung out of the window, using the drainpipe above. She disappeared from sight and I rushed forwards, looking down at the lack of body. When I looked up, I saw the girl's smiling face.

"Shift yourself round and grab my hand." she instructed. "I'll pull you up."

"I don't think so. I'm not mad." I told her.

But then I found myself reaching for her hand. She tightly closed her fingers around mine and smiled down at me.

"Come on." she murmured as I shifted round so my weight was out of the window.

It was a strange surprise when the girl managed to pull me up onto the roof. She smiled at me as I rolled over and lay there. The roof was slanted upwards but there seemed to be a flat section at the top. The girl headed towards it and I followed, releasing a breath I hadn't realised I had been holding.

"It's a great night." the girl remarked, looking over the night sky.

She was right. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and a gentle breeze kissed our cheeks as we stood there. I could see, in the distance, a orange haze dancing into the night and above that the moon.

"That's Gotham." the girl said, pointing at the orange haze. "Good 'ld Gotham. From here you can barely see what it's like. I mean, it looks like it could be Metropolis."

"Don't let Superman hear you say that." I smiled.

"What could he do?" the girl smirked back.

Then her attention drifted back to Gotham.

"It takes a certain sort of person to survive Gotham. A person who can find hope in ruins of good places. In Gotham, there's a theme park, an old theme park that became too dangerous and expensive to run and too much of a target for people to go. It was closed down but the rides are still there. They just need a lick of paint, some bolts tightening and some love and they can be used again. That's the only thing wrong with Gotham. It's got a screw loose and people seem to not be bothered to find the screwdriver."

"That screwdriver being Batman and Robin?" I found myself asking.

"Being everyone who lived there. If everyone did their part, if the shop owners stopping buy from criminals and the public stopped hindering the police and the millionaires started putting money where it is really needed, then..."

A voice cut through the night sky. It was a familiar voice and it was calling for someone called Diana.

"Diana? Bruce will kill you if he finds you up here while Zucco's out, never mind the criminals."

It was the ginger girl from earlier, Barbara. The girl walked across the roof towards me and the black haired girl with a smile on her face. She seemed as comfortable as the other girl did on the roof.

"Thanks, Babs, now he knows who I am." the girl who had been with me all night moaned.

Then she reached up to her mask and removed it. I saw a perfect face revealed from behind the mask. She startlingly blue eyes at perfect contrast to her pale but flawless skin. She lips were a vibrant but natural red and her hair fell just over her face as the mask barrier was removed. I recognised her instantly. She was the girl that every Gotham newspaper wanted to interview, photograph and embarrass. She was the heir to the richest legal millionaire in the world and definitely the best gymnast America, if not the world, had the honour of calling theirs. The girl was Diana Grayson.

* * *

Now who was expecting that?


	3. Zucco

"Dee, I was searching for you everywhere." Barbara said. "I was with Wally." Diana replied, "Showing him the manor."

"Did you see anyone suspicious?" Barbara asked.

"You going detective on me, Babs?" Diana smirked.

Then she turned to me and began to explain who Barbara is.

"I know most of that stuff, we talked before."

"You told me your name was Cameron." Barbara informed me. "Cameron Gates."

"I was joking. I thought that if I pretended to be a millionaire then I wouldn't be made fun of. My real name is Wally West." I lied with a smile.

"Just like Diana, lying to fit in. For the first couple of balls she went to, she attempted to convince people that she was a millionaire herself because then they couldn't make fun of her background."

"What being from the circus? No, that's cool. I would love to be from the circus." I told Diana.

"Babs acts like she didn't lie but she did, we once pretended we were sisters."

Diana stuck out her tongue at Barbara and managed a gentle laugh. I found a smile spreading across my face. I had expected Diana Grayson to be up tight, believing that she was the be all and end all of the world. She wasn't. She could have been anyone you would meet in the street. She was so laid back, I could see us really becoming friends.

"Problem is I can tell when you lie." Diana began, taking a seat on the roof and staring out over the city. "Bruce sent you up here to spy on me."

"Naturally. He has a right to be worried. The man who murdered your parents has broken out of jail and you know full well he is going to try something at this party."

I briefly found myself wondering how Barbara would know that and then I remembered she was the police commissioner's daughter. Her dad had probably told her or told Diana to make sure that the girl was safe.

"I know! But Batman is on the case and Zucco has ruined my life once before, I will not have him ruin any other second of it, including tonight." Diana growled. "So either you stay out on the roof and stop reporting to my father every time my heart beat changes, or go back inside and trust me to keep myself safe."

Barbara looked at me for a few seconds and then went back inside.

"She's worried about you." I told Diana, lowering myself so I was sitting beside her.

"Name someone who isn't." she murmured back. "I'm just... I'm not a kid. I get kidnapped and I get threatened and beat up and bullied but I'm not a kid. I don't need someone breathing down my back all the time to check I'm not going to hurt myself. When I was a kid, I would fly, soar. My parents knew the risks but they trusted me to... They trusted me to make the right choice, do the right thing, trust the right outstretched hands."

A silence filled the night air between us as I imagined a young Diana soaring through the tense air of a circus tent, a child without a care in the world. I would have loved to seen her perform with that perfect smile on her face. My tummy rumbled slightly, ruining the moment. Diana turned to me, raising one eyebrow quizzically.

"How much do you need to eat?" she asked.

I was tempted to tell her that I have super speed metabolism and that I need to eat every hour or so but I didn't. I told her I hadn't eaten more I left and Diana said that we should go and get some food.

"Are you sure you can face the party?" I asked as Diana swung down from the roof.

She had replaced her mask but now I knew it was her and the mystery had faded. At first I had thought that it was the mystery of the girl that had given me a tingling, light sensation in my chest but, even after the mystery was gone, the sensation was still there.

.

We didn't go back to the party. Diana had been more keen to abandon it than I was. I wanted to be back there, looking out for Zucco because Diana was a decent kid, more than decent she was... I'm getting off the subject. Diana led me into the manor's kitchen and let me look round. There were lots of cupboards and expensive cooking equipment. The girl lead me over to a double doored fridge freezer on one side of the kitchen and told me to take whatever I wanted. I opened the door and noticed Diana take a seat on one of the counters. I began to rummage through the fridge, passing foods that I didn't even recognise.

"So, do you like living here?"

"Yeah. It's big and sometimes a bit lonely but it's better than any of the other places the GCCPS were going to send me." Diana informed me.

I had heard enough about the GCCPS (Gotham City Child Protection Service) from Robin to know that protecting children was something it did very little of. The social workers could be bribed, normally were prejudiced and sometimes brutal. If care homes were full then perfectly innocent kids ended up in Juvenile detention centres. Robin had told me stories about what went on in those places and... I didn't want to think about it.

"When I got here, I kept getting lost. I was nine so Bruce gave me a radio and told me that if I got lost, I was to call him and describe the room to him. Soon it became a game to me. I would wonder off or hide and then get Bruce to come and find me."

There was a thoughtful but happy sigh from behind me and a smile met my lips. Diana seemed like a wonderful person.

"Do you want a drink?" Diana asked. "Tea is about the only thing I can make."

"Tea is fine." I said after a few seconds of thought.

The sound of the kettle beginning to boil the water filled the air. I got out everything and began to make a sandwich. I was grating some cheese for it when I glanced back at Diana. She was waiting for the kettle to boil with a far off grin on her face. She was clearly remembering her first couple of months in the manor and the fun she had. The manor had been her home for six years. She had spent a good part of her life there. She must have so many happy memories to make up for the bad. If something like that had happened to me, I would never trust again and, if I ever found happiness, I would never let anyone in. Diana was sharing her house with an almost total stranger, letting him take food from her kitchen and talk about some of the horrible things she had gone through. I turned back and gave it more thought. Then I felt guilty about making only one for myself and asked Diana if she wanted one. I didn't get an answer. I frowned and asked again. Still no reply. That was when I turned. Two men were standing in the kitchen. Both were dressed in black, carrying hand guns and wearing ski masks. They had thick gloves over their hands. One of the men was holding Diana. He had one hand over her mouth and the other pressed against her stomach, holding her arms by her side. The other man was coming towards me. They moved silently and I realised that they had to be working for Zucco.

"The boss only wants the girl." one of the men growled.

He was the man holding Diana. The girl's eyes lit up with momentary horror as she realised she was once again a target and probably in danger of losing her life.

"Then we'll just have to finish off the boy." the other man said, licking his lips.

I looked at Diana and could see that was a struggling. Her blue eyes begged for me to fight back. I wasn't sure what I was meant to do. Although the thugs wouldn't know my real name, Diana would. If I used my powers she would know who Kid Flash was and her life would be even more endangered than it was because of her father. I decided I had no choice. Zucco was a killer and I doubted very highly that he only wanted Diana so he could apologise about what he did. I was just about to use my super speed when there was a smashing sound. A vase had been smashed against the back of the man holding Diana. He realised Diana and fell to the floor, where Diana kicked him in the chest to make sure he was down. Barbara was left standing in the doorway, holding what was left of a priceless vase. She took in what was happening in a second and dropped the vase. I looked at the second man and knew I had to distract him long enough for me to hit him. I grabbed a handful of grated cheese and threw it at the man. It distracted him long enough for me to snatch his gun but it was Diana who delivered the final blow. She ran up behind him and smashed the gun of the first man over his head. The second was knocked unconscious by the blow. Suddenly the group of us were overcome by a silence. I could hear my own heart thundering in a terrified way it never normally did. Did I see Diana as so much as a friend I was terrified when she was threatened?

Diana was studying the two men with a look of disgust on her face.

"What a waste of cheese." she remarked, looking down at the grated yellow food stuff that covered the floor.

Barbara smiled and then looked down at the vase.

"I'm sorry about the vase."

"It was cheep." Diana said.

I recognised it and frowned. I told Diana the type of vase it was to make sure she knew how expensive the vase really was.

"Like I said, cheep." Diana assured me.

We turned to leave and then I turned to the girls. My Kid Flash instincts took over and I knew I had to get them out of danger.

"You two should go and find a safe place to hide." I told them.

The two girls shook their heads almost in sync. "We need to warn the other guests." Diana said. "If there are some of Zucco's men here, there are bound to be more."

"Then you should be hiding." I told Diana, trying to get through her bravery and appeal to the scared side everyone had.

Diana turned to Barbara and began to issue instructions. "We have to get there quickly. You phone your dad and tell him to begin to evacuate. We have to get as many people out as possible before someone starts shooting." Diana said.

Then we heard a loud sound coming from the ballroom. We all recognised it and knew that we were too late. I looked at the girls and thought that the sound of shooting would scare them enough for them to run off. They ran... Towards the ballroom.

**I hope you enjoy that. As always I don't own Young Justice!**


	4. The bomb

I could have overtaken them if I wanted. I could have stopped them both before they had reached the ballroom but I didn't. Other members of my team were in that room. They would be able to protect them. I wouldn't be much help as Wally West or Cameron Gates as some people knew me as. I crept away and slipped out of the suit. I stuffed it into the shadows and smiled as my Kid Flash costume became clear. This transformation took me less than a second. As I stood there as Kid Flash, I decided to go and tie up the thugs from before in case they woke up. While I was there, I may or may not have snacked on what I had prepared for a sandwich.

.

When I ran in, it was chaos. Diana and Barbara were holding the doors to the ballroom open and shouting at millionaires to run. Seven men with pistols and one with a sub-machine gun were standing in the centre of the ballroom. Millionaires who couldn't reach the doors cowered in the corners of the hall. That was when I noticed Superboy dressed as a waiter, trying to find a way to get changed into costume. A look from me suggested that so long as he had used his fake name the hold night he would get away with attacking dressed like that. I noticed a pretty blonde teenager helping a wounded millionaire towards the door and recognised the teenager as Artemis. Then I saw Kaldur standing near Diana's butler. Kaldur was dressed as a millionaire but dropped his mask as he rushed forwards to attack. Then I noticed Megan. She was in her natural – non green – skin form but as she ran towards the would be killers her skin turned green. I was about to join the fight when I heard Barbara shouting Diana's name.

I turned and saw Diana running across the ballroom towards a little boy who seemed to have been abandoned. The boy was dressed in a smart suit and standing near a wall, crying. Diana ran over to him and knelt down, trying to calm him down. The stream of escaping millionaires had stopped until there were only about twelve trapped in the room – including, I noted, Bruce Wayne. Diana and the boy were the only other civilians in the room because Barbara was hovering by the double doors that lead deeper into the house. Diana scooped up the boy and shot her father a look that I couldn't understand. The man seemed to understand however as he nodded to tell Diana to go ahead with it. As Diana rushed to run from the room and let my team fight the killers, a new voice filled the air.

"Hello, good evening, esteemed..." a fat and short man said walking in.

He was holding a sub-machine gun and had been smiling. His smile fell when he saw how empty the ballroom was and how all the millionaires escaped.

"Where did they all go?" he growled at his men.

"The commissioner's brat and the circus freak let them out." one of the men reported, pointing towards Diana and Barbara.

"Oh, Diana, long time no see." Zucco sneered, walking forwards.

Diana turned to him and glared. She put down the boy and knelt down, whispering for him to run to Barbara. The boy did as he was told and Kaldur ordered the team, who were getting ready to attack to stand down. Thirteen civilians in the room still made the number of possible causalities horrifically high. I watched in horror as Diana didn't turn to run, didn't alter her glare from the approaching man. She was putting herself in danger and all I wanted to do was get between them.

"Diana!" Barbara called from the doorway.

There was a cold calm in the black haired teenager. She had hatred in her eyes. As Zucco approached her, she removed her mask. An equally emotionless mask was underneath it.

"How are the nightmares?"

"Gone." Diana spat.

Then she kicked Zucco in the private parts and ran like crazy. Me, Superboy and Kaldur winced. The men took aim at Diana's retreating figure. Barbara and Bruce were screaming for Diana to run faster. Just before the men fired, I recovered and ran towards the girl. I had a head start over the bullets which saved us both as I grabbed Diana and raced off. I had spun round the corner, pulling Barbara with me. I made sure the two girls were hidden by the wall before racing off.

"KF, Artemis, protect the millionaires. Superboy, Miss Martian take the men. I'll get Zucco." Kaldur ordered.

I leapt into action with Artemis. She produced a bow from somewhere – don't ask me where, I don't know – and began to take out the guns of the men. I ran round helping the millionaires up and telling them to get out of the room. When I reached Bruce Wayne he seemed to have time to thank me for saving his daughter. He batted my hands away, telling me to help the others. Then a green flash caught my eye. I turned and saw one of the men produce a lump of kryptonite. Superboy looked at it in horror and was clearly getting weaker. Then one of the men managed to grab Miss Martian and dazed her by hitting her across the head. Kaldur was knocked to the floor by Zucco and me and Artemis looked at the group, unsure what to do. We didn't have any way to stop them in case they killed one of the team. We needed a way to surprise the men.

"Okay, little super brats. We're going to ransom you and the millionaires left trapped in here." Zucco announced.

He moved towards me and Artemis, pointing the gun at us. Then there was the sound of shattering glass and two figures swung in through a now broken window.

"Oh, look, Batgirl, seems like it's murder on the dance floor." Robin laughed, smirking as he landed and began to skid slightly across the floor.

"Bad pun, Robin." Batgirl scolded and looked around.

"Hi, Zucco, it's horrible to see you again." Robin spat.

Zucco smiled and turned around, pointing the gun at Robin. He fired it, a series of bullets hitting into the wall where he had been standing as he and Batgirl dove. I looked at my friend and knew he was creating a distraction.

"Mr Wayne won't be very happy if you keep shooting at his walls." Robin laughed, doing a handstand.

"I think he's shooting at us." Batgirl smiled.

"No, he can't be. If he was aiming at us wouldn't the bullets come close?"

"Bad shot?" Batgirl suggested, taking out the man holding the lump of kryptonite.

She quickly tucked the glowing lump of rock into a lead lined sealed container in her belt. Across the hall, Robin helped Miss Martian up and took out the man who had knocked her down.

"I bet he's just a sad, fat, lonely, old man with nothing better to do but to crash the police's party." Robin smirked.

That's when Kaldur gave the order for us to attack. We all surged forwards and I joined in Robin and Batgirl's taunting.

"And why is that?" Batgirl asked, taking down a thug.

"Because we've put all his villain friends in jail and he has no one to party with." I answered, zipping around so I could get to the criminals.

As I passed Robin, he turned a punch meant for a criminal into a fistbump for me. Then all the criminals were down. We all looked towards Kaldur until Miss Martian asked a question to no one in particular.

"Where's Zucco?" she asked.

The team began to scan the room until we found the mob boss. He had set up a bomb and was running from the room.

"Come after me or defuse the bomb."

Robin looked like he was about to follow but Batgirl placed a hand on his shoulder and angled him back towards the time bomb. It had been set at thirty seconds and was ticking down rhythmically. I found myself holding in a breath as my mind raced. There was little we could do. None of us knew how to disarm a bomb.

"Kid Flash, Superboy, get all the millionaires out." Kaldur ordered.

Me and Artemis had already got most of the millionaires out so it took me and Superboy only one trip to clear the room. When we got back, the bomb was around the twenty second mark.

That was when Batman came in. He looked at us with a frown and then spotted the bomb. Even as he strode over, he was barking orders.

"Batgirl, Robin, Kaldur, Miss Martian out. Superboy, Kid Flash, Artemis stay." he barked.

We all did as he ordered that second, except for Robin who hung back for a few seconds.

"Robin, get out." Batman growled.

Robin turned tail and followed the others sadly. I looked at Artemis. While Superboy could survive the explosion, me and Artemis definitely wouldn't.

"Artemis, give me an arrow and then go and join the others." Batman instructed.

Artemis did as she was told. I waited for Batman it dismiss me. He didn't. He handed me the arrow.

"Kid Flash, we need to cut a wire and you have the speed to do it. Superboy, x-ray the bomb and tell me where the blue wire is."

Superboy did as he was told and described where the blue wire was. Batman levered the panel Superboy had said away and we could see three wires. The blue one was the only one we were interested in.

I made the mistake of glancing at the clock. I had five seconds to cut the wire. A normal person would have lost their nerve but I went into super speed mode and time in effect slowed down for me. I held the arrow and used the tip to cut the wire. As it cut, a smile spread across my face and I found myself able to relax once again.

.

After defusing the bomb, we had all gone outside to explain the situation to the police. Or at least Batman was and the rest of us were sitting around, relaxing. We had all changed back into our disguises so we could relax without being rushed by millionaires. Robin and Batgirl were standing there in costume however. Robin walked over having just been on the radio to Agent A about something. I didn't know what and, in his normal Robin way, my brother didn't tell me. There was a lot he wasn't telling me. He seemed upset. Whenever a criminal got away normally he would be frustrated, this time he seemed upset. I decided I had to cheer him up.

"I was really enjoying tonight as well." I moaned.

"And defusing a bomb isn't enjoyable?" Robin exclaimed, forcing his voice to sound happy.

"It is but..."

I was thinking about Diana and about how I was never going to see her again. She was a millionaire's kid. I was the nephew of a crime scientist. I hadn't even got to say goodbye.

"Where were the police?" I asked. "There must have been loads of police at that ball but they all scampered away like chickens."

"Zucco owned most of the police." Robin explained gravely. "If Gordon had fired all the crooked cops in Gotham it would be just him and one other officer policing the city."

"And I thought you owned most of the cops." I smirked. "You normal order them around enough."

"Not funny, Wally." Robin snapped. "And next time you go undercover, try not to tell anyone your real name."

I didn't know how he could work it out but he seemed angry. Not just at me but at the world. Robin looked away and took a deep breath. I could see he was shaking slightly.

"Everything was going so well." he murmured under his breath.

I could barely hear his comment but it dug deep. What had done this to my friend?

"Rob, if there is anything you need to talk about, ever, you know where to come, right?"

"You." Robin answered. "It's just... Lets go somewhere else."

Robin began to walk away and I began to follow him. Then someone tapped me on the shoulder. I jumped and turned. It was Diana's butler, Alfred.

"I apologise for making you jump, Master Wally."

"It's okay." I replied, hoping that no one had realised I had jumped.

However, when I heard a snigger coming from the direction Robin had been from me, I found myself smiling. Anything to cheer up my friend.

"Mistress Diana requested that I gave you this. She said she would have delivered it herself but after the shooting and the bomb she has not been permitted to leave the custody of a police man." Alfred said, handing me a folded up note with my name on. "She asked that you didn't use it tonight as she would be busy with the police but tomorrow she should be able to answer."

I told the folded up note as the butler moved away with a curt nod of his head. I wasn't sure what to make of it. I frowned and turned to Robin who was silently prompting me to open the note. I unfolded it and stared. I dropped the note. I picked it back up and reread it. I dropped the note again. I picked it back up and reread it again. I dropped the note. Robin caught it and looked at it.

"It's a phone number." Robin informed me.

I had already known that.

"It's a mobile phone number."

I had already guessed that.

"Who's is it?" Robin asked, as if trying to remember every phone number he had come across.

"Diana Grayson's!" I exclaimed, jumping and punching the air.

I calmed down and looked and Robin. He was smiling at me.

"Diana's nice." Robin said simply and began to continue on walking.

"Diana's nice! She's more than nice..." I began, following after him.

.

We sat in a tree at the edge of the Wayne Manor grounds and I talked about Diana: saying how great she was and how much I liked her.

"Slow down." Robin told me. "You're not the Flash."

"No, I'm better." I replied with a smirk.

Robin's joyful cackle sounded through the night. I smiled, knowing I had down my job of cheering him up with aimlessly exaggerated movements.

"You're going to need a wingman." Robin told me. "Someone who knows the Gotham area like the back of their own hand and you can trust."

"Will Batman be my wingman?" I asked, elbowing Robin in the ribs. "Don't worry, Birdie, I want you."

Silence fell between us two and I remember why we were out there: to discuss what was upsetting Robin.

"So, bro, tell me what's going on." I told him.

"Zucco. Specially what he did to Diana." Robin murmured. "I was there, the night her parents fell. If the wires would have held out a few seconds longer, she would have been performing with them and fallen like them. She would have died if... Instead she watched." Robin told me. "She's a friend, goes to my school, in some of my classes. I feel guilt because I've had all this training and I knew that Zucco was demanding money from them and I should have been able to save them. I should have been able to do something."

"Robin, that happened six years ago. You were nine. Short of getting yourself killed there is nothing you could have done." I told him.

"But it's worse than that, because I go round and I pretend that I don't care but after that case every failure is like the Graysons, a kid my age or younger crying because I didn't manage it." Robin told me.

I wasn't sure what to do so I pulled him into a hug. I don't know if Batman has a rule that you have to have a certain number of checks before you could hug Robin but he was my brother and I would rather hug him and face Batman then leave my brother to suffer alone.

"I'll act as your wingman." Robin told me. "So long as you don't tell anyone that I..."

"Still need a bro-hug?"

"Yeah. We've got to just be structive."

"Okay, new entry for Robin's prefix changes, structive?"

"If bring destructive is destroying something, and being constructive is building something then structive must mean keeping is things the same." Robin explained.

"Okay, so long as you don't make me say words like that when I'm on a date."

"You're not dating her yet." Robin reminded me with a smirk.


	5. Home turf

**I don't own Young Justice. If I did I would not be doing my GCSEs, I would be making more Young Justice series than even I want.**

**By the way, I got into a fight with my friend today over a rather strange question - Superman gets his powers from the sun's rays, right? So what would tanning beds do to him?**

**Just a thought: now onto the story.**

* * *

The next day, I paced the kitchen with a frown. I couldn't wait until I could call Diana up. I was waiting for Robin to call me up. He had said he would call me when he believed that it was time. I guessed he was spying on the Waynes rather happy, probably hanging from a tree or something. It was the weekend and Robin had told me that Diana would probably sleep in.

Suddenly my phone rang. I grabbed it using my super speed and sighed when I saw it was Kaldur.

"Hey, Kaldur." I said. "What's up?"

"Batman is going to call a debriefing this afternoon. I want to make sure that if there is anything you have to tell me, you've told me. We need to get our story clear before the League attempts to pick it apart." Kaldur said.

"Nothing." I said.

I knew Robin wouldn't rat on me that I told the two girls my real name; he wasn't that sort of person. I said goodbye to Kaldur and then hung up. My phone rang again. It put it to my ear and began to moan at Kaldur. It was Robin.

"Give her a call." Robin said simply and hung up.

I didn't care. I quickly found Diana's number in my phone and rung it.

"Hey." Diana said. "Who is this?"

"Diana, it's Wally, you gave me your number last night."

"Yeah, I remember." Diana replied. "Where did you go last night, during the shootings? You disappeared."

"There was shooting. I went in the opposite direction." I lied.

_Great, _I thought, _the first girl I actually like and I start our relationship by lying._

"Suppose so. Me and Babs are used to shooting and Bruce was in that room. I had to get him and the other guests out."

"I heard it was Zucco. Are you alright?" It wasn't news to anyone that Diana would be shaken up. I wanted to check she wasn't feeling completely alone.

"I'll hold up." Diana assured me. "Bruce is keeping me busy and Babs wants to train in a few minutes."

It was then that I decided I could ask if she wanted to meet up, possibly even call it a date. I could sound causal, even make it sound like we would be hanging out as mates at first.

"Wally, I've gotta go. Babs is calling. See ya around maybe." Diana said.

She hung up before I had chance to react. I sat there and listened to the silence coming down my phone.

.

A week past and I had no contact with Diana. I didn't call her. I called Robin every night and asked him if I should but he said I should wait. That night I had decided I would call Diana even if Robin told me not to. The school week had been dull. Everyone was building up for some big sports event. All I knew was that it was after school and I was being made to go. I wasn't on the sports team. Uncle Barry had thought it would be useful for me to learn medical skills in case I needed them as Kid Flash so I had joined the school Junior Medics. They were going to attend the event in case someone was hurt. The other team were meant to be turning up later – some time during the afternoon. They were from some posh private academy or something. I didn't really care that much. I just wanted to get the medical work over and done with so I could go home and call Diana.

.

In Maths, my last lesson of the day, I was consciously avoiding work. Maths was more Robin's field than mine. I was staring out of the window when a posh bus with a school's crest on the side pulled up just outside. The bus was for Gotham Academy and the doors slid open. A series of rich kids dressed in expensive white shirts, dark green blazers and dark green ties filed out in a perfect line. They stood to attention in the centre of the playground and I stared at them. There was an equal mixture of boys and girls. Each of the children were small but looked strong. I briefly wondered what sport they were there for. I racked my brain, trying to work out what they could all be there for. It was a gymnastics competition. That was when I noticed her, Diana, standing just behind a familiar looking redhead. I could barely see the shorter ex-circus gymnast at first but it soon became clear she was there. Both her and Barbara were there. They were probably gymnasts, knowing Diana's past, not medical people like I was being forced to be. However, now that Diana was there, I wasn't sure if I needed to be forced any more.

.

The gymnasts were graceful, more than graceful, they were wonderful. Some of them I was sure could rival Robin in gymnastic skill. The competition was set out so the competitors would compete in pairs or single genders. Then the pairs would get points for each event and the winning pair would bring back the trophy for their school, one for each gender. There were no prizes for guessing who Diana was paired up with. Some people had come to watch, probably to catch a glance at the children of millionaires who would be competing there. They were all really amazing but I doubted most of the schools jocks were in the hall to see the gymnastics.

My suspicions were proven correct when Diana and Barbara moved to the side of one of the mats so they could prepare to preform and a large group of boys walked over. One of them was the school's resident jock, a horrible young man who went by the name of Skid and no one knew or cared about his real name.

"Lookie here, guys. We've got two fine little things."

Skid and all of his five thugs were a head taller than Barbara. Diana had little hope of catching them height wise.

"Leave it out." Diana instructed with a dull and dry monotone.

"Pretty thing like you gotta be told it once in a while." Skid reasoned.

"Every day is not once in a while." Barbara snapped back.

"Your hair is as fiery as your temper." one of Skid's thugs laughed.

"What, one of you can string together an argument?" Diana said with mock surprise, clapping. "I'm so proud. Do you want me to call up the newspapers?"

"Seems like they're both feisty. Lets say we blow this dump and go and grab some drinks." Skid suggested.

"No thank you. I have better, more interesting things to do with my time."

"Like?"

"I have to beat your school's reputation of being good gymnasts into the dirt." Diana informed the jock.

It wasn't an insult. It wasn't a threat. It wasn't even trash talk. It was a simple fact. I smirked at the way Diana had delivered it. Skid was left dumbfounded and Diana and Barbara turned away.

Then they noticed me. Diana smiled and waved. Barbara gave me a simple nod. They would have come over to talk to me but their names were called out.

"Grayson and Gordon, positions."

The two girls silently nodded to each other and moved onto their positions. A few of the Gotham Academy students began to chant a phrase, 'G and G', over and over again to cheer on the girls. I was meant to be scanning for injured looking gymnasts but I could tell that these girls were the school's gymnastic stars. They took up their positions and then began.

Barbara's movements were fluid, perfect. She looked like it was something she was born to do. She pulled off each move with such beautiful stance. I stood there, my breath taken away from me. The way others saw it must be wonderful. The way I saw it was worth more than anything I could say. I saw everything she did in slow motion, saw every glint of life in her eyes.

Barbara was a heavenly gymnast but Diana was something else. She was on a whole other level. I couldn't then and still can't find the words to describe the way she danced about that. Anything I could say wouldn't do her skill justice. She looked at home when she danced, completely at peace. There was a smile on her face, no look of concentration as if she was remembering something. Her blue eyes danced in time with her body but they looked so alive, more alive than should be possible.

Suddenly it came to an end. There was a pain in my chest as if my heart was aching over it coming to an end. Diana and Barbara had finished side by side with their arms up in the air. Barbara looked a bit breathless but they were both smiling. As they let their arms drop, Diana offered a cheeky salute to the Gotham Academy group. Then she turned to me and winked. She began to limp off the centre mat and towards the medics.

"I think I've messed up my ankle." Diana told me with a wink.

.

I helped Diana into a quieter room and helped her onto the side. She sat there and I told her to take off her shoe. She complied with a smirk and as soon as I touched her ankle, she gasped, pulled it back and sniggered.

"It's a miracle, Mr West. My ankle's all better." Diana laughed.

"That's great." I told her, helping her off the table. "Your performance was great."

"Thanks."

We stood there in silence for a moment. We were in a medical room, alone, standing face to face. Diana was so pretty...

"So, this is your school? Never knew." she exclaimed.

"Will you be taking the bus back to Gotham later?" I asked.

At first it was meant to be small talk and then I realised how dangerous it sounded out loud.

_Please tell me you're not. You'll bus will be ambushed. The richest kids in Gotham will be kidnapped, ransomed or killed._ I moaned internally. _I don't think I would be able to live with myself if I'm Kid Flash and the girl I have feelings for is killed without knowing how I felt because I wasn't quick enough. Diana, you can come round mine and sleep the night if your going on a night journey in Gotham._

"Of course not. No kids move in large groups at night in Gotham. Me and Babs will be staying in a hotel in Central and then my butler will be collecting us early in the morning. Most kids are going to do that." Diana said with a simple shrug.

I nodded and smiled, feeling my heart beat settle back into it's normal rhythm. I hadn't realised that I had got that scared about Diana, my heart had been racing. She smiled at me, almost as if she could sense my concern. That got my heart racing again.

"Why didn't you call again?" Diana asked.

"I was waiting for the right time." I told him. "Why didn't you call me?"

"Because I'm a mad obsessive stalker who kinda knew I was going to go to your school and that I was going to find you." Diana said, sounding shy.

I didn't mind. It didn't matter to me at all. I just loved seeing her.

"I was going to call you tonight, even if I didn't think it was the right time." I told her truthfully.

Suddenly everything felt so right. I reached up towards her cheek and went to put my hand against it. Diana smiled, angling her face towards my hand so she could touch it earlier but looking up at me. I began to lean down, moving towards her lips.

"Dee!" Barbara called as she rushed into the room.

Then she laid eyes on the two of us, the millimetres between our lips and the way our eyes had locked. She faltered as me and Diana recovered. We quickly looked away from each other and tried to act in a causal manner.

"Did I interrupt something?" Barbara asked, a smile spreading across her face.

Diana shrugged at her friend and then asked her why she was there.

"Diana, no surprise, but we won." Barbara said. "They're giving out the awards."

Barbara grabbed Diana's arm and began to pull her from the room. As they walked out, Barbara moved towards Diana and began to whisper into her ear. I heard the beginning bit of the conversation.

"Did you two...?" Barbara began.

"I think we were going to." Diana said.

I couldn't tell if she was happy about that or not. Diana turned back and looked at me as Barbara shepherded her down the corridor. Then she was gone. I was left standing in the corridor alone. I tried Robin's phone but he didn't answer.

_What am I meant to do now? _I thought.

* * *

Yeah, I let Wally get so close and then I sent Barbara running in. Poor him!

If you can answer by question at the beginning, please tell me the answer!


	6. Skid

I had stayed away from everyone after that. Including Diana. I didn't want to see her. It would be awkward. After the awards, where I had hid in the back of the sports hall, I had called up Uncle Barry and asked him to drive me to his. I had been staying with him after my dad had kicked me out. Him and Aunt Iris were happy to have me. I was waiting for him when I heard Skid's voice down an alley. At first I considered leaving Skid to himself, there wasn't much he could do. Skid was a jock, there was little I could do to challenge him.

"Hey, it's the pretty little things." Skid called.

"Oh look, it's our friend from earlier, Babs." Diana replied, snapping back.

I realised what I had to do. I sprinted off to deal with Skid.

.

Skid and his thugs had cornered Diana and Barbara. He was reaching out to touch Diana's cheek just like I had been doing before.

"Oi, Skid!" I shouted, storming over. "Let the two GA kids get back to their hotel."

"Staying in a hotel, sweethearts? Can I come back with you?" one of Skid's thugs asked.

"My dad's a cop. Do you want to talk to him? He'll deal with you." Barbara told the group. "And Dee's dad is Bruce Wayne for crying out loud."

"Then lets show her a good time that money can't buy." Skid laughed.

That was the moment I snapped. Any time Skid insulted anyone before, it was between them and Skid. It was only crimes I got involved in and I couldn't go Kid Flash on Skid for meaning stupid. The way he talked to Diana, however... The man who killed her parents had shown her more respect than Skid was. I stood in front of Skid and punched him before I could register what I was doing.

"Diana, Barbara, run!" I told them as Skid and his thugs recovered.

Barbara began to run. Diana didn't. She stood there and then glared at Skid. He was moving to punch me. Using my super speed I could probably get out of the way but then people would know I was Kid Flash. Robin had told me he'd been bullied once and that, for the sake of his identity, he had just stood there and taken it. I was going to do that and I did for one punch. I was sent reeling and expected another violent attack. Until Diana got in the way. "That is enough!" she bellowed like she was talking to a group of naughty children. "For crying out loud, Skid, or whatever your name is, me and Barbara live in Gotham city. The trash there carry knives. Do you really think we would be even the slightest bit intimidated by a bratty jock who needs to grow up?"

Skid was speechless. He looked at Diana and then at me.

"Now scram before Wally's uncle who works for the police gets here." she growled.

She sent them a glare. I couldn't see it. I was standing behind her but the glare had a powerful effect. It sent Skid and his gang running. When Diana turned to me, she was wearing a gentle smile. She took my hand and pulled me to my feet with a nod.

"You okay?"

"Yeah." I stammered.

"Babs?" Diana called.

Barbara came from round the corner and looked at the two of us.

"We better go before Skid comes back." Diana said. "Bruce will want to know what happened to. I'll ring him when we get to the hotel."

I sighed and looked at Diana.

"Me going to kiss you, I can completely understand if you don't want to be mates any more." I said before I had even registered it.

Diana's blue eyes widened in shock.

"Wally, why would I want to stop being friends with you?" Diana asked. "For all I know, you just saved my life."

"But you said they're not as bad as Gotham gangs." I protested.

"They're still a gang." Diana countered.

Barbara was smirking a bit away from us as if she knew what was coming.

"I still want to be friends with you, Wally. Of course I do. I might even be tempted to be more than friends."

Then Diana began to walk away. I turned and followed her with confusion in my green eyes. I then looked at Barbara for help.

"In translation from Diana's language to human: Wally West, I fancy you lots and I am trying to hint at you to ask me out on a date but I don't want to be too forceful because you're clearly terrified by the very idea of having a possibly healthy relationship with the daughter of Bruce Wayne." Barbara said.

"What should I do? Because my wingman isn't much help." I asked.

Barbara thought for a few seconds and then a smile spread over her face and lit up her eyes.

"You could go and ask her out." Barbara said as if it was the most genius idea in the history of man kind and any other alien species that live upon our planet.

A large part of me was terrified by the very idea.

.

Diana was standing on the street corner alone. She was clearly waiting for Barbara who would lie and say she had been held up just long enough for me to ask Diana out. That was when a car pulled up. I gasped. Diana Grayson + Alone + Car pulling up = Kidnapping! (I'm not the Maths genius, that's Robin!)

I began to run forwards when the window of the car was pulled down. Then I recognised the car. It was my uncle's. Diana was talking through the window, laughing, as if she knew my uncle well. I frowned. Diana probably hadn't met my uncle and, if she had, she wouldn't know him that well.

"Anyway, there was me and Wally and we were standing around in this play park, looking for Wally's cousin. I spotted him and was just like there you are skipper. Next thing I know he's screaming and claiming I'm kidnapping him. Police got involved and everything and all Wally was doing was laughing. That was until Tommy said Wally was his dad and he was trying to find ID to prove that he was the kid's cousin. It was hilarious."

Diana laughed at the story and I blushed, remembering it. Then I walked forwards, vowing to ask Barry about how he knew Diana later.

"Diana, can I speak to you for a moment?" I asked and Diana nodded.

I looked at my uncle who was waiting in the car, expectantly. I didn't want to do it in front of him.

"Alone." I added.

Diana still nodded and walked a little way down the street, just so we were out of my uncle's earshot. I was thankful he didn't have super hearing.

"Diana, I was wondering..." I began and then corrected myself. "I really like you. Like really like you and if you're not too busy... I mean it's perfectly alright if you don't want to..."

I had no idea what was happening. Normally I was so smooth. Okay, not Robin level smooth – he just seemed to get girls on a level I near would. Not even Kaldur smooth – for a fish boy he knows how to impress humans. I was at a Superboy level. It was the sort of level where I would be better off saying nothing at all. Half of me wanted to. I decided I need to be brave but I just couldn't get a sentence out properly.

"Wally, take a deep breath and start again." Diana smiled, encouragingly.

"Diana, would you like to be more than friends? I mean boyfriend and girlfriend more than friends."

"That's so sweet but I can't keep coming over to Central."

"I'll come to Gotham. We can have our dates there and everything." I found myself saying before I had even thought it through.

Diana's smile grew. She blushed.

"Call me in the morning and we can organise something." she told me and then half ran off, half skipped.

I turned to my uncle and headed back towards his car. He shot me a quizzical look.

"You're friends with Diana Grayson now?"

"Yeah." I said dreamily.

"Do you know that she's...?" my uncle trailed off.

I looked at him with a confused glance as I got into the car. He turned around with a knowing smile on his lips.

"So how do you know her?" I asked.

"She goes to a lot of charity police balls." Barry answered as he began to drive off.

"That's where we met." I informed him. "Still wouldn't make you good enough friends to talk about things like that."

"Like Tommy? Everyone knows that story, Wally. Even Batman." Uncle Barry told me. "Speaking of heroics, do you want to costume up and see what's happening in the city?"

.

It was the cackle that alerted me to his presence. I would know that cackle anywhere. I was Kid Flash, patrolling with Flash when I registered the cackle and turned. Flash had zoomed off, leaving me staring at the silhouettes of two very familiar people.

"I heard the news." Robin said, walking forwards. "Dating Diana Grayson. Do you know that some people try to date within their league?"

"Leave him alone, Rob, you're just jealous because you can't date her." Batgirl scolded, walking towards me.

"I could if I wanted." Robin smirked. "And she would be so whelmed."

"How did you know?" I asked.

"We're Bats, it's our job to know." Batgirl laughed as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"What are you doing here, bro?" I asked, patting Robin on the back.

Robin shrugged.

"Is it illegal for a bro to want to hang out with his brother?" Robin asked.

We fistbumped just as Flash sped back.

"Kid Flash! I was worried you were in trouble!"

Then he spied my companions.

"Robin! Batgirl! What are you to doing here?"

"An Irish jig." Robin answered, cheekily.

"Can I see it?" my uncle countered.

"No."

"Are you sure?"

"Very sure."

Robin sent Flash the Batglare and soon Batgirl joined in. It was around that time when I heard a coin being flipped. It was such a gentle sound I almost missed it. If I had then I didn't miss the second sound. A gun shot sounded and I threw myself towards Robin and Batgirl, hoping that I would get them both down in time.

* * *

I have a strange story challenge for any one willing to take it. PM me for more details!

By the way - please review


	7. Two-Face

Hi. Enjoy this chapter. Please review. I'm sorry it's been a while too!

* * *

Robin and Batgirl hit the dirt with me landing between the two of them. Two-Face walked out of the shadows and smiled down at us. He flipped his coin again and I had to guess which person he was aiming at. It could be any one of the three of us. The coin landed and I tried to see what it was telling Two-Face. He frowned at it and flipped it again. I decided that he would be aiming at Batgirl so when he moved the gun, I moved to protect her. The shot was fired. I waited for the shot to dig into me as I protected Batgirl. A grunt of pain told me I had made the wrong decision. Two-Face had just shot Robin. It was then when Flash leapt into action. He punched Two-Face in the jaw and I rolled over to check on Robin. It was a clean bullet wound to the chest, right where his heart would be. I didn't check for a pulse. I didn't want to feel it's absence. I threw myself to my feet and charged at Two-Face beating him into an unconscious pulp. Then I turned to Flash.

"Why didn't you do something?" I roared.

"I..." Flash began.

"My best friend is dead because of you and...!"

"We need to get him to a hospital." Batgirl said, having taken Robin's pulse. "We're losing him. Flash, has Batman informed you of the identity of the only doctor we trust?"

Flash shook his head. I stood between their exchange, feeling helpless.

"Okay, take Robin to the Hall of Justice. I'll call Superman." Batgirl said.

Flash picked up Robin and raced off in a blur. I looked at Batgirl but she pulled out her radio before I had chance to say anything.

"Superman, Robin's been shot. The Doctor should be at her clinic." Batgirl said down the radio.

Then she turned to me.

"Why is Two-Face in Central?" Batgirl asked.

"He could be after some of the Gotham academy students while the security is down. It's not like Central has lots of security." I told her.

"Okay." I'm going to take him to the station." Batgirl said, pointing at Two-Face.

She picked up the criminal and disappeared. I was left alone and I wasn't sure what to do. I slowly produced my phone. I knew it was late but I needed someone to talk to. I rung Diana but the tones passed and the answer phone came on.

"You have reached the phone of Diana Grayson, leave a message if you want unless it's something really stupid."

I managed a weak smile at the sound of her voice but hung up the phone. What could I tell her? I was almost happy she had been busy. I would have blurted out everything.

_It's a good thing she's probably asleep. Pity I don't know the hotel, I could go and check on her. _I thought. _Anything to keep my mind off Robin._

_._

Robin was in surgery by the time I had gained the confidence to go to the Hall of Justice. Batgirl wasn't there yet. Batman wasn't either. There was me, Flash, Superman and Wonder Woman – who had been in the building at the time. Flash as pacing the room. He had some blood on him and looked distraught. Superman was looking sick and worried. He kept trying to comfort Wonder Woman who was opening the door from the waiting room to the infirmary and looking inside every so often. Every time she opened the door, she blocked me from seeing Robin, my best friend. I felt guilt. Robin had been dying on the floor and I hadn't helped him because I had been so eager to get revenge.

It's horrible when someone you know is injured in front of you and you feel like everyone else can do something but you. For me, it was even worse when it was Robin. He was my younger brother and I could do nothing to protect him. It was all out of my hands.

"How is he?" Batgirl called, running in.

Superman moved towards Batgirl and he silently shook his head to tell her it wasn't good. He let her fold into his chest and not face the world. Batgirl looked like she was on the verge of tears. She had a right to be. Robin had been shot right in front of her. When Batgirl pulled back, she looked t me and sat down on a chair. She pulled me down next to her.

"You did the right thing. You couldn't have known..." Batgirl tried.

"Once, when me and Robin were ten, we fought Two-Face, just the two of us, alone. Rob could predict that mad man down to the words he would say. The were twenty hostages, ten armed thugs and only two of us and Rob made sure no one was hurt. I had two people to protect just then. I am fast enough to have got you both out of harms way before Two-Face could blink but I was scared stiff."

"Wally..."

Then Superboy, Artemis and M'gann rushed in. I snapped out of my sadness because my friends didn't need to be worrying about me on top of everything that was happening with Robin.

"Hello beautiful." I said, getting up and smiling at M'gann.

It was clear she was devastated by what Robin was going through. We all were but I had to remain positive.

"Rob's pulled through worse." I reminded her.

"What was Two-Face even doing in Central?" Artemis asked.

"I don't know." I replied with a shrug. "Maybe he was trying to get away from your smelly breath."

"What was Robin doing in Central then?" Artemis asked.

"Same thing." I smirked.

Artemis groaned but I saw a flash of a smile in her eyes. She then turned to Batgirl and began to comfort her friend. Both girls were a common sight in Gotham and Batgirl was a good friend to the team through Robin. She had joined us on lots of missions.

Batman and Kaldur walked into the room and silence fell. Everyone could tell how upset Batman was by this. He sent me a Bat-glare, clearly understanding the situation.

"How is he?" Batman asked.

"The Doctor is in there with him. She's trying her hardest to help him." Superman said.

"Can I see him?"

"No one in during surgery." Wonder Woman said, reminding Batman of his own rule.

"Surgery?"

The word was turned in Batman's mouth like it was some sort of poison. He looked at the group of teenagers and then pointed at me and Batgirl.

"You two, with me." he growled.

Batgirl and me looked at the rest of the team with fear in our hearts. Flash tried to step between me and Bats, hoping that he would be able to protect me but I pushed past him. Batgirl was already heading down the corridor with Batman when I caught up.

"Where are we going?" Batgirl asked, confusion spreading over her face.

"To get some answers."

.

Two-Face was sitting in a cell when we stormed in. He smiled cruelly at Batman and asked how Robin was.

"He's where you're going to end up if you don't start talking." I informed Two-Face. "Surgery."

"Why were you in Central?" Batman growled, slamming his fists down on the metal table in front of Two-Face.

"To get to the Gymnastics trophy." Two-Face growled.

"The trophy or it's winners?" Batgirl asked.

Batman turned to her with a question look.

"Grayson and Gordon." Batgirl explained.

"The millionaire's freak and the commissioner's brat. Yes. I was after them."

it was clearly a lie. Something about it didn't add up.

"Which hotel are they staying at?" I asked.

"What?"

"If you were planning to go after them then you would know which hotel they would be staying at so which one?" I asked.

"Does it matter."

"He doesn't know." Batgirl replied. "Which means he's in Central for something else."

"Or he's left Gotham to escape something." Batman said.

He had been so silent I had almost forgotten he was there. He made me jump but I realised he had been thinking. Or worrying. Every second we were there could be Robin's last.

"Zucco?" Batman suggested. "A crime lord who pretty much owned the city before prison. He's driving all the other criminals out."

"Do tell him I said I was after Grayson." Two-Face smirked but he sounded scared. "Grayson's his. When he finds the girl, gets his hands on her... Well, I wouldn't want to be her."

Batman grabbed Two-Face by the collar. He threw him against the wall.

"Tell me everything you know about Zucco." he growled.

I was horrified. I had never watched Batman be so brutal.

"Missing Robin, I see." Two-Face tried.

Batgirl grabbed his arm, holding up her radio.

"Superman called. Robin's out of surgery, conscious and requesting me and Kid Flash." Batgirl said.

.

Hospitals are horrible things. I don't like them. They smell and there's a horrible feel to them. I wasn't sure if I wanted to see Robin but he had been requesting me so I decided I had to go. As I walked in, Superman was thanking a masked 'Doctor' for saving Robin. It was clear we weren't allowed to know their identity. I walked past Superman and into the room Robin had been treating. He was sitting on a medical bed, twisting, seemingly attempting to get use to his stitches and the pain the bullet wound was causing.

"Hey." Robin said slowly.

Batman and Batgirl rushed to his side with a smile. Batgirl pulled Robin into a hug and the boy hid his pain from her.

"How are you?" Batman asked.

"Feeling the aster." Robin joked and let Batgirl run her hand through his hair.

"Don't you ever scare us again." Batgirl him.

"It's not like I was trying to."

I felt completely left out by this family moment. It was slightly awkward. I knew Robin better than most. I knew how Batman reacted when Robin was injured and needed care. Robin sat between Batman and Batgirl.

"The Doctor has patched me up find and I'm guessing from your fists that Two-Face has been dealt with." Robin said, nodding to the blood on Batman's fists.

I hadn't realised that the Dark Knight had drawn blood. Then Robin turned to me.

"Wally, you did the right thing." Robin assured me. "More than the right thing, you did best thing. I would rather take a bullet and know Batgirl is safe than not take one and not be sure. No matter what Bats thinks about it."

"What?"

"Just kidding." Robin said although me and Batgirl could tell he wasn't. "Batman, Batgirl, I think that the Doctor would like to talk to you before she leaves."

Batman told Robin to not move and then left with Batgirl. Robin smirked, got up from the medical table and continued to stretch.

"Where did the bullet go?"

"It was only a flesh wound, Wally." Robin assured me.

"You were in surgery." I tried.

"I'm always in surgery." Robin shrugged. "If I graze my knee I'm sent to surgery."

I moved closer as Robin changed the subject.

"So Diana Grayson. I go to school with her but I want your view, Mr Lover Boy Dude."

"She's great. I mean, when we were fighting Zucco, I'm pretty sure she saved a few lives. She's calm and generous and gymnastic and beautiful and..."

"She's really made an impression." Robin remarked with a smirk.

There was something in my friend's body language. I could tell when he was doing something simply because it was expected. I could also tell when he was curious. He was asking about Diana because it was expected of him. I guessed he was just a bit off because of the gun shot.

"We're dating but I called her up after you were injured and she didn't answer."

Robin looked alarmed for a second and then relaxed.

"It's night time and, if Two-Face was hurting me, he wouldn't be there to hurt Diana would he?" Robin assured me. "Now I've been told by the masked Doctor to get some rest and she has this strange way of telling if I've been doing what she thinks."

.

I walked outside and saw Batman and Batgirl talking. On seeing me, Batman dismissed Batgirl. I walked over and Batman made me sit in front of him.

"That was a good deduction while dealing with Two-Face." Batman congratulated. "Very impressive. It shows how much trouble Zucco is causing. I'll deal with him as soon as possible."

"I'm sorry Robin was shot."

"Worse has happened." Batman growled.

I waited for him to punish me for that but he had something bigger on his mind.

"Diana Grayson." he said.

I tried to hid my emotions at the name but a blush danced across my cheeks and my mouth pulled into a smile.

"There is no rule about dating civilians." I pointed out.

"You're right. There isn't but there is a rule about giving yourself away during undercover missions. Either Diana believes she is dating a millionaire's son who doesn't actually exist or you've broken a mission rule. Either way, it stands to be Diana who will be hurt."

"I would never hurt Diana." I told him. "In fact, I stopped her from being attacked by someone from my school."

"So she knows your real identity." Batman said with a shake of his head. "She's a citizen of Gotham, a very famous one at that, if you hurt her or abandon her, then I'll..."

"He didn't need to continue."

"I agree with him dating Diana." Robin said from the doorway to the medical room.

"Your friend has told her his real identity."

"And they're dating. Did Batgirl tell you?"

"When?" Batman snapped.

"Tonight."

"Why?"

"KF asked. Diana likes him. They almost kissed at the gymnastic trails." Robin said.

It was becoming clear that an argument was brewing. I wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.

"I'm going to go."

"Good." Batman growled.

"No stay. It's not like there should be secrets between people as _close_ as me and Kid Flash." Robin growled with a glare.

"Kid Flash go." Batman spat almost silently.

He glared at Robin and walked straight up to him. There was less than an inch between their faces as Batman had bent down so his eyes were glaring into Robin's. I began to back away, seeing the fear on Robin's face.

"We're going to have a little chat about secret identities."

"They're my friends!" Robin spat. "They deserve to know!"

I reached the door and raced away, wondering how a discussion about Diana Grayson had got the dynamic duo to Robin's secret identity.

* * *

I'm not sure whether Bruce's reaction is protective DaddyBats, paranoid Batman or simply a dislike for Kid Flash. Either way...


	8. The date

**I don't own Young Justice!**

My fingers tapped nervously against my milkshake. It was my first date with Diana and I was anxious. She was the daughter of a millionaire and the best place I would take her was a low quality café in the centre of Gotham. She was probably used to five star restaurants and food that cost more than I would pay for a car. I guessed she would be disgusted by the restaurant and that my only hope lay in my great company...

_Oh man, she's going to hate this. _I internally grumbled.

Then a beautiful black haired girl dressed in a set of causal jeans and a smart t-shirt strolled in. I was proud and overjoyed that I had the pleasure of calling her my date. I waved one hand to show her where I was and she walked over.

"Hello." Diana said, sitting on the torn up leather seat of the booth I had chosen.

"Hey." I replied, making a weak attempt to cover up a wince about how badly I had chosen the restaurant. "Sorry about..."

"Wally, this is great." Diana assured me, fixing her prefect baby blue eyes on my emerald ones. "To tell you the truth, I would be overjoyed if you had taken me to a dump. Bruce hasn't let me out of the house since the 'incident' and now I'm out with such great company."

"Thanks. Do you want to order?" I asked, feeling hungry.

Diana nodded and I called a waitress over. The waitress looked at me and then caught sight of Diana. The girl was instantly recognised and fussed over, getting given the best menus and offered free food. "Can we just order?" Diana mumbled.

"No, I think they want you to buy the restaurant." I replied with a smirk.

"Let me just make a call, I'll see what my dad can do." Diana said and got up, pulling out her phone.

That was when my phone rang. I blushed at the ringtone. Robin is a technological genius which is very helpful. We invent tools together and Robin hacks systems while I solve science mysteries. The problem is Robin is also a trickster. He recorded me singing a well known song from the sequel to High School Musical – the song was 'Fabulous' – and set it permanently as my ringtone. It was embarrassing to say the least.

I looked at my phone and saw it was my uncle. I found myself checking that Diana was still safe just outside the café before I took the call.

"Hey, Wally, do you want me to pick you up now?" Uncle Barry asked.

"You think my date went so badly I need picking up..." I checked my watch. "Four minutes since it was meant to have started?"

"Wally, it's you, I was going to ring ten seconds after the date started but I wanted to give the girl chance to storm out."

"Your so considerate." I moaned. "Yeah, I am. So do you want a lift?"

"No, Diana is enjoying the date. She says I'm great company." I informed him with a smirk.

"You know a smirk only works if the other person can see you."

"Then how do you know I'm smirking?" I asked my uncle, letting my smirk deepen.

Then the door was opened and Diana walked back in. I quickly hung up so I could give Diana my full attention.

"Bruce is sorting it out." Diana informed me. "This café should be Wayne property before the end of the week. So where...?"

My phone had begun to ring again. It had begun to ring again and the embarrassing ring tone was coming through the air. I went as red as my hair and Diana suppressed a giggle. Pulling out my phone, I saw it was my uncle. Before I had chance to deny the call, Diana had snatched my phone and answered it.

"Hey, Barry, what are you to Wally?" Diana asked with a smile.

I could guess the answers before I actually heard them.

"No, I don't want you to come and pick Wally up. I actually want to know if you think Wally is old enough to watch that new horror movie, Jaw of Death, with me after our meal." There was a pause. "Great, thanks, um... Pick him up from the cinema at about, I don't know, five."

Diana hung up the phone but began to work on it.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Changing your ringtone." Diana answered, looking up at me with a smirk that danced around in her beautiful eyes.

"What? Rob..."

I stopped. How was I meant to have a technological genius friend called Robin in a city like Gotham? Diana clear was switched on. She would make the link between my friendship group, me disappearing during the party just before Kid Flash showed up and, if we had any further dates, other disappearances.

"Robbie, a mate from Central, nicked my phone and hacked it somehow." I explained.

"It's a Wayne Tech model. What do you think I spend my time doing when Bruce takes me into work?"

"Hacking the phones." I shrugged. "What, are you like some sort of genius?"

"Nineteen Mathlete trophies, the ability to hack any type of phone made by one of the world's leading manufacturers and a criminal record says I am." Diana said.

It took me a few minutes to comprehend the whole list.

"You have a criminal record." I half gasped, half laughed.

"Of course I have a criminal record, it's Gotham."

"What did you do?" I asked.

"According to Gotham law doing a handstand on the top of a building counts as self-endangerment." Diana smirked.

She handed me back my phone.

"Out with the old and in with the new." she giggled, talking about my ringtone.

"Fabulous." I joked. "So, does your dad like the idea of you dating someone?"

"My dad's plans for me dating involve me being locked in a tower from the world's population of males." Diana laughed.

"So he doesn't know you're here?" I inquired.

"If he knew he would be here to spy on us. He thinks Babs asked me to go round and study."

I smiled.

"So, Jaw of Death...?" I began, thinking about the movie Diana wanted us to go to.

.

Diana and me were walking down the street, side by side. We were happy, smiling and on our way to a horror movie. Once me and Robin had gone to a horror movie and I had ended up screaming and running out of the cinema. Robin had sat through the whole thing and when he had come out remarked on how I had never fought the Joker. I was kinda nervous. I knew that I had to show how brave I was but horror movies just weren't my thing. Then Diana pulled me into an alleyway.

"What's wrong?" I asked as Diana peeked round the corner.

"Alfred." Diana murmured.

I looked round the corner and spotted Diana's butler walking down the street towards us, holding bags of shopping.

"He should go straight past." Diana assured me as Alfred got closer.

He didn't. He turned to go into our alleyway. Diana frowned and then realised what he was coming down our alleyway. The alleyway lead back to the high street. Diana's keen eyes fixed upon a fire escape and she leapt up, pulling down the ladder. It landed with a clang but no one noticed. The street was too busy. Diana crept up the ladder and stood on the first level of the fire escape, hiding in the shadows. Alfred turned the corner and saw me. I thought for a moment he recognised me but he walked past without saying anything. When she was sure Alfred was gone, Diana came down. While a normal person would have taken the ladder back down, Diana did a backflip and landed right in front of me.

"Once a circus gymnast, always a circus gymnast." she remarked with a smirk.

"You are such a show off."

"And you aren't. One word: Skid."

Somehow Diana managed to widen her smirk. I smiled and took her hand. We began to walk down the street together.

"So when are you going to tell your dad about us?" I found myself asking.

"When I work out if he would like you." Diana said. "Perfection isn't really his thing."

I stopped walking and realised we were outside the cinema. Diana released my hand and walked inside. I couldn't move.

_Had Diana just called me perfection?_

_._

Diana had brought the tickets for the film by the time I walked in. She was slipping her ID away as I appeared by her side.

"Can we buy something to eat?" I asked.

"We just had lunch." Diana said but went to get her purse.

"I can pay." I protested.

"So can I." Diana grinned, producing a card. "My dad was just announced a billionaire. I think I can afford popcorn."

.

The cinema was huge. There were several large screens. There were also lots of shifty characters wondering around. Diana did her best of cover her face from most people. I realised why. If she was recognised and got into trouble, then her father wouldn't know where she was to come and help her. It must be horrible to be in danger all the time. At least I could relax while I was out as Wally West.

"So, what have you heard about the film?" I asked, trying to keep Diana's mind of the danger she might be in.

She was probably being hunted by Zucco. He had murdered her parents and she had kicked him in the manly parts about a week before.

"Me and Babs watched it. It's really good." Diana said, sounding distracted. "That guy." she said, nodding in the direction of a guy in a dirty hoodie who seemed to be staring at us. "He followed us in and has been following us ever since."

My heart skipped a beat.

"Okay, what do we do?"

Normally I wouldn't ask that. Normally I would take control if it was any other civilian but Diana seemed to know what she was doing.

"We keep going and hope that it's just a coincidence." Diana said.

Then the man stared to walk towards us. I pulled Diana protectively behind me but the man walked straight into me, pushing me to the side and banging into Diana. He didn't do anything to hurt her accept knock her to the ground. Then the man reached down and helped Diana to her feet. He grabbed her shoulders and puled her so close to him that I was worried that he was going to attack the girl. The man whispered something into her ear. I couldn't hear it but Diana's smile faded at it. The man walked away and Diana turned. She handed me her half spilt popcorn and hurried after the man, asking him what he had meant.

When the man didn't stop, Diana returned to me and looked at me with a frown.

"What happened?" I asked. "What did he say?"

"He said 'Just like Joan of Arc.'" Diana told me. "But what does that mean?"


	9. A lack of permission

Surprisingly I managed to hold my nerve during the film. I didn't panic or scream. Diana seemed to enjoy it, taking in every moment. She did, however, seem distracted. I guessed that what the man had said to her earlier on was still confusing her. She clearly wanted an answer soon.

"Just like Joan of Arc." she repeated as we walked down the street.

Diana had told me that I only needed to take her as far as the nearest bus stop. She said I couldn't do anything romantic like walk her home until she had found the correct way to tell her father. Part of her seemed distracted when she said that.

"Well, goodbye." Diana said. "We should do this again sometime."

"In my city or yours?"

"Yours would be safer. So mine." Diana smirked.

The bus was already there but the driver was smiling at her.

"Fine by me. I'll call you tonight." I said and squeezing her soft hands.

"Okay, I'll be waiting."

Then Diana got on the bus. She talked to the bus driver for a few seconds, handed him the money and then took a seat near the front of the bus. I watched as the bus pulled away and waved happily at her. Then I decided to change into my Kid Flash clothes and go to Mount Justice.

.

I was surprised to see Speedy there. We were close, me, Robin and him, but he normally didn't come to Mount Justice. He smiled at me.

"You're looking happy." Speedy remarked with a smirk.

"I just came from a date." I informed him.

"Getting dumped isn't a good thing, KF."

I laughed and told him how well the date had gone, keeping Diana's name out of the conversation. I doubted that Speedy would believe me.

"So, why are you here?" I asked him. "Not that it's not great that you're here."

"Same reason you're probably here: Gotham mission." Speedy pointed out. "Gotham action. Gotham crimes. Gotham girls."

Speedy raised an eyebrow suggestively. He was the oldest out of us three brothers. He was also the most interested in the other gender.

"Since you have a girlfriend, it means that I'm the only one of the bros after the girl we'll be protecting. Robin has Batgirl, you have your mystery girl and that means I can have the damsel in distress."

"Tell me who she is." I said.

It didn't really matter to me. I had a girlfriend. I knew Speedy's secret identity, about the fact that he was Roy Harper. That made him the kid of another millionaire. Speedy had the status to date Diana but I had the personality.

"Batman wants us to protect Diana Grayson while he's tracking down Zucco." Speedy answered. "And the meeting should be starting soon. I was just about to call you and Robin."

"Hey." Robin said, walking into the room. "What's up?"

"Kid Flash has a girlfriend and we have a mission."

"Diana Grayson and Gotham." Robin answered. "Yeah that's the mission, can you say who Kid Flash is dating?" Speedy asked.

"I did." Robin smirked and began to walk off.

Speedy looked at me with a frown.

"Do you know what he's on about half the time?" Speedy asked me.

"I know what he's on about now." I replied.

.

Batman scanned us. His gaze fixed on Robin and I tried to read Batman's face. He looked at if he was trying to ask Robin something. Then Batman looked away from his sidekick and at me. He clearly wasn't happy that I was dating someone from his city.

"As you know, Zucco attacked the Police Charity Ball. Present at that ball was a certain teenaged girl who assaulted a certain tender part of a man's anatomy."

Meet with confused glances from the others, especially Speedy, I decided it was my place to explain what Batman meant.

"Diana Grayson kicked Zucco in the balls." I translated from Batman.

"It was a beautiful shot." Robin remarked.

"But now Zucco is out for revenge. Given his past with Grayson, I believe that her life will be in danger if Zucco manages to get close." Batman said. "You will be split into two teams. Speedy, Kaldur and Artemis, you will be staying inside Wayne manor and guarding Grayson personally. Kid Flash, Miss Martian and Superboy will be giving protection from outside of Wayne manor. I already have permission from Mr Wayne to allow you access."

I paused, finding it hard to understand what Batman was doing. I was Diana's boyfriend. I had a right to be there to protect them. Batman knew that we were dating.

"What about Robin?" I heard Speedy ask.

"Robin will be accompany me and Batgirl in hunting down Zucco." Batman said. "You are dismissed."

"Actually, I want a word." I said, as, around me, the others got to their feet to leave.

"Really." Batman said. "What about?"

"Diana." I grumbled. "You know we're dating."

"You're dating?"

Batman seemed surprised. He knew full well I had asked Diana out, Robin had told him. I didn't know how he could have not thought that me and Diana would go out on a date.

"Yeah, I just came back off our first date. Is there a reason that you put me on the team that has no contact with my girlfriend?"

"Yes." Batman snapped after a moment. "Your emotions that are going to put her in danger. She is dating Wally West, not Kid Flash."

I glared at Batman but a Bat-glare returned it and I cringed.

_How does Robin put up with you?_

"Just cause she's from your city does not give you command over who she dates." I informed him. "I'm not a criminal so there's no reason for me not to date her."

"Only there is. Your criminals could find out about your relationship with her and come to Gotham after her."

There was a pause and I looked away.

"You can't tell me who I should date."

"No, but I have a great deal of contact with Diana's father and he can stop her from dating you. He doesn't need to know you're kid flash. He only needs to know you're trouble and with the current situation I assure you he's trying to keep Diana out of that. Find Robin and send him in."

I stormed out and found Robin.

"You know, Rob, any time you want to get out of the crazy house of Batman, call me. I'll let you stay round." I told him after telling him that Batman wanted to see him.

.

I went home. The mission was going to start tomorrow. Diana was going to be under police protection that day and probably in a lot of trouble since Batman was going to be telling her dad that we were still dating.

"Why the long face?" Aunt Iris asked, walking in. "Normally you love missions in Gotham; have you and Robin fallen out?"

"Heaven forbid that. The world would end if those two didn't have each other to cling to." Uncle Barry joked.

"You know, Diana Grayson, right? Well me and her met on an undercover mission and now we're dating but her dad doesn't like the idea of her dating and Batman doesn't like the idea of me dating someone from Gotham."

"He can't stop you from dating her, surely?" Iris said.

"He can." Barry admitted slowly. "He has some... How do I put this? Influence over Mr Wayne. Rightly so too, if it wasn't for Batman neither Bruce Wayne or Diana Grayson would be alive today."

"But he can't stop me and Diana from dating. I mean, he's not got that much control..."

"It's Batman, name one thing he doesn't control."

I let my head drop and then my phone rang. I reached towards it and smiled when I saw it was Diana.

"Hey." I said down the phone, as my aunt and uncle moved away.

"Wally, you have got to do something, Batman just told Bruce about us and now Bruce is angry, really angry. He's saying I don't trust him and that we're not allowed to date and... Could you just talk to him or something?"

"Okay, I'll... Hand over the phone and..."

The phone was handed over and an angry growl sounded. "So your the boy who's dating my daughter. Batman says you're trouble."

"And how does he know that?" I asked. "I didn't ask." Bruce Wayne snapped back. "My daughter is under police protection at the moment. She doesn't need an idiot boyfriend wondering round cause trouble for her."

"How can I prove I'm not an idiot?" I asked, trying to remain as calm as possible.

"Come round in two days and we can sort this out. Until then, Diana is grounded. She is not to leave the house and not, and I repeat _**NOT**_, taking phone calls, texts or any other form of communication from you, including talking, notes, letters and telling friends to tell her stuff. If you break those rules then there is no chance on Earth that you will go anywhere near my daughter again."

In my mind, I actually found myself wondering if I could do it.

* * *

I know it was short but there is more coming. Including a fight between two team members.


	10. Speedy

The day had come for the team to offer protection to Diana. I stood outside in the cold air. We had been patrolling the area all day while Diana and her guardians had been at some sort of party Diana clearly had not wanted to go to. Now it was evening and Diana was being introduced to her protectors – at least the ones inside the manor. I could see the silhouettes of her, Bruce and the three super heroes who would be protecting her. Bruce Wayne was pacing the room, nervous. He kept glancing towards Diana as if, in the few seconds he had looked away, something terrible would have happened to his little girl.

"I wonder why they brought in the whole team. She's only one kid so police protection should cover her." Superboy pointed out.

I tried to remain calm. I would rather die than not be here to protect Diana.

"Zucco used to run Gotham. If he is after Diana then we'll be able to protect her and catch him." I snapped, still staring up at Diana.

I couldn't focus. I would have been able to if I was allowed to make contact, to call her or something. M'gann looked at me. She could tell I was distracted.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Nothing. Nothing is wrong." I answered too quickly for it to sound truthful.

M'gann clearly didn't believe me. I sighed and shook my head slowly.

"I'm just a bit distracted. Someone kinda gave me this challenge to do but it's really hard." It was. If it was any other time I would have rushed inside and told Diana my secret identity but then I wouldn't be able to date her. I found myself wondering how Robin felt, how frustrated and annoyed and upset he must get because he couldn't take off his mask and relax even when he saw us in public.

"We'll need to be on the ball." Superboy informed me, scanning the area as a gentle breeze caused the leaves of nearby trees to rustle.

"What a strange saying." M'gann exclaimed and proceeded to roll the saying about in her mouth several times.

We paused and let silence settle over us. I stared dreamily up at Diana, planning what I was going to say when I raced into the room and told Bruce that I didn't care what Batman said. I almost missed Superboy saying he was going to check the perimeter. M'gann said she would go with him and soon they were both gone. I was left standing by the gates to the manor. When I looked back up at the manor, I saw Artemis closing the curtains and frowned. She caught sight of me and smirked back, picking up a tray of cookies and eating one in front of me. My tummy rumbled and I had to look away. That was when I noticed someone coming up the drive. We had been ordered to check everyone approaching the manor in case they could be armed or working for Zucco.

"Excuse me." I said, walking up to the approaching figure.

The figure was a young man. He looked at me and managed a confused and weak smile.

"Hello, Kid Flash, ain't it? This guy paid me to drop of this book for Diana Grayson. Said she'd asked for it or something."

"Well, I'm kinda protecting the manor so give me the book and I'll give it to her." I said, hoping it would give me an excuse to see Diana.

The man gave me the book and then went on his way. I looked at the book. It was on famous warriors and soldiers from history. As I walked towards the manor, I opened it and scanned down the contents page. I came to a circled name and frowned.

"Joan of Arc?"

_Is Diana researching Joan of Arc because of what that guy whispered to her?_

I closed the book as I reached the door to the manor. I knocked and then realised that Batman would twist it into me making an attempted to make contact with Diana – which I was. I decided I had to go before the door was opened. I scribbled down a note in my best impression of Superboy's handwriting so that it was clear the book was for Diana and that it had been checked. Then I zipped into the shadows.

The door was opened by Kaldur. He read the note, picked up the book and studied it for a second. I smiled and came out from the shadows. I liked the way that Diana wasn't just waiting for something bad to happen like some sort of damsel in distress. She was doing something about her situation, investigating something she didn't understand. It was kinda impressive, even to a superhero. I looked up at the windows and saw a light was on in an upstairs room. I guessed it was Diana's bedroom. There was a large set of windows and one of the windows was open but I couldn't hear anything. Then I saw Speedy and Diana walked up to one of the windows and climb out so they were sitting on the window sill.

_What are you two up to?_ I thought.

Me and Speedy were good friends. Me, Robin and him were pretty much brothers. We were the same age, started crime fighting at roughly the same time and we all liked the same things. There was only one thing I didn't like about Speedy: he was a flirt. He was also the worst kind of flirt, a smooth flirt. It meant he could get the girls he wanted and leave me and Robin standing at the side lines. (Not that Robin tried that hard to get girls. I always presumed he had too good a thing going with Batgirl.) I trusted Diana enough to know that she wouldn't cheat on me with anyone. But Speedy wasn't just anyone. He had perfected the art of being a flirt. I'm pretty sure flirting is his super power.

I slowly edged closer so I could hear them but Speedy produced his bow and arrow. He fired an arrow into a forested section of the grounds. The arrow carried a line and it pulled straight like a zip wire. Speedy attached the end he had to the wall and then fixed his bow onto the line.

"Grab on." Speedy said and Diana put her arms around his waist, smiling as she did so.

Then the two of them flew out into the night. I watched them in horror.

_Don't you dare make a move on my girlfriend!_ I mentally shouted at Speedy as I ran off to follow them.

.

Diana and Speedy ended up standing in a clearing in the forest. Diana had lead the way from the zip wire and she seemed very happy to be out of the manor. She had done some gymnastics on the trees when she had got to the clearing. Some of the gymnastics had come dangerously close to hitting me as I spied on them from behind the trees. I didn't want to spy on Diana but I had managed to convince myself that I was going it for Diana's own good. I had told myself I was there to offer backup if Zucco attacked. I could see everything they did and hear everything they said and I was fast enough to avoid them if they looked. I knew I wouldn't get caught.

Diana looked very beautiful that night. It was clear she had been doing some gymnastics training because she had changed out of whatever fancy clothes she had worn at the part into some training clothes. She was dressed in some black jogging bottoms and a white t-shirt. Her hands had white bandages wrapped round them and I briefly wondered if she had been on the trapeze. Diana looked remarkably beautiful despite the lack of any finery or effort. Speedy must have felt the same way I did because he had put on his smooth smile.

"Where do you want me to hit?" Speedy asked.

_Oh no, not an archery demonstration. He only tries that on girls he really wants to impress._

"That tree." Diana said, sitting down on the grass and pointing at a tree that the night gloom made hard to see.

Speedy smiled confidently.

"Okay." smirked Speedy.

He fired an arrow and it hit into the tree Diana had pointed out. Speedy winked at my girlfriend and produced another arrow. He spun it around for a few seconds before preparing it and firing it in one fluid movement. The arrow had a sharp tip and cut through the first arrow. The first arrow was split right down the middle.

_Show off._ I thought.

Then Speedy took a seat next to Diana on the grass. My girlfriend looked up at the night sky. She studied the stars and a smile danced across her face. She had such a great smile that it made me smile as I saw it.

"Can you teach me to do that?" Diana asked, looking back down at Speedy.

I recognised it. Whenever Speedy demonstrated archery to a girl they wanted him to teach them. He would teach the girl and then compliment them or do something romantic and they would turn around and he would seal the deal with a kiss. I had watched it done a million times. I had watched it work nearly as often.

_Don't fall for it, Diana!_ I pleaded.

"Okay." Speedy said, getting to her feet.

He was eager to show off in front of my beautiful girlfriend. Speedy gave Diana a gloved hand and helped her to her feet. He then handed her his bow and gave her an arrow. The gymnast got into a stance similar to Speedy's and Speedy examined her.

"Okay, so you put that there and, yeah, that's right, beautiful, pull it back."

At first I thought Speedy wasn't going to try his usual trick. Diana was in the right stance, getting ready to pull off a good shot. She was better than most girls and was trying to screw it up so she could get more lessons off Speedy.

Then Speedy did the romantic move.

"Wait, let's try this."

Speedy stood behind Diana and pulled her back against his strong chest. He helped her hold the bow still and hooked one arm with hers so he could help pull back the arrow.

"Okay, you're ready." He paused. "Just one thing to make it even more perfect."

_Not the hat, not the hat, not the hat!_

Speedy slipped off his signature hat and placed it on Diana's head. He sorted out his hair for just a moment and then returned to help Diana fire the show. It hit the tree just below the first two arrows. Diana jumped in delight.

"Perfect, just like you." Speedy remarked smoothly.

Diana stopped jump and let Speedy turn her around. I felt a jealous pull in my chest as Speedy stared into Diana's blue eyes. I wanted to do that. She was my girlfriend! Speedy was a bit taller than Diana but he began to angle his head down, going towards her lips. Diana shifted onto her tiptoes, looking she she was about to kiss him.

"Speedy, I need to tell you something." she said.

I was getting ready to rush out and stop them.

"It can wait." Speedy said, still leaning in for the kiss.

Diana shook her head and rolled back onto her heels, pulling away from the kiss.

"I have a boyfriend." Diana admitted.

My heart stopped. Speedy's trick had a ninety-nine percent success rate. It only didn't work on people who knew Speedy's trick. Diana had just managed to escape Speedy's spell – for me!

Diana slipped off the hat and handed it back to Speedy, along with his bow. She looked awkwardly at the ground.

"I'm sorry." she began. "It's just that I really like this boy and my dad is trying to break us up and I don't want to ruin what I've got now and..."

My cheeks turned red. She was talking about me. She was turning Speedy down for me. I could barely believe it.

"I don't really mind if..." Speedy began, moving towards Diana.

"No." Diana said. "I do mind. This was fun and you're a really great guy but... I have to go."

Then she was gone. For a few moments it looked like Speedy was going to chase after her and try again.

"Pity. She was hot." Speedy mumbled to himself.

Something inside me snapped.

_Was that all because you thought Diana was **hot**? You didn't think she was a great girl or that she was one of the kindest and most alive people you had ever met. **She was hot!**_ I mentally screamed at Speedy.

I stormed out from the tree line, storming straight towards Speedy.

"KF?" Speedy said, turning.

"What did you do that for?" I screamed.

"What?"

Speedy looked genuinely confused. I didn't use my super speed. I didn't want to. I didn't have to. I stood right in front of Speedy and glared into his eyes. Then I punched him. As he reacted, I kneed him in the stomach. Speedy fell to the ground, winded. He clearly didn't understand what was happening.

"There's a line!" I bellowed.

Then Speedy recovered. He knocked me off my feet by sweeping my legs out from under me. He went to hit me in the stomach. I used my super speed to get out of the way and snatched his bow. I threw it away and continued to roll around on the ground, punching and kicking at Speedy who retaliated in the same way. Speedy grabbed my wrists and put me in the hold. I snapped out of it and grabbed one of Speedy's arrows. Speedy hadn't even registered the missing arrow and I drove it towards his neck.

A gloved hand grabbed the arrow and snapped it. I didn't look at the figure. I didn't even try to work out who the figure was . I just reacted. I drove my elbow back and hit the hand's owner in the stomach. They were thrown back against the grass and laid there dazed and surprised. I pushed Speedy in the chest so I could continue attacking the figure. I just needed a long enough distraction to punish the figure for coming to Speedy's aid before getting back onto the main culprit.

"KF!" Speedy exclaimed as he hit the ground.

I turned to look at the figure and went to punch them. The figure dodged and I grabbed them using my super speed. I dragged the figure back and punched them in the eye.

"Wally! Wally! Stop!" the figure was shouting.

"What are you doing?" Speedy bellowed.

He pulled me off the figure and threw me onto the floor. He put me into a head lock and I struggled.

"Leave Robin alone!"

My heart actually stopped. I looked at the figure I had been beating and saw with horror that it was Robin. He was rubbing the eye I had punched.

"What gives, bro?" Robin asked.

"I didn't know it was you." I admitted.

"Why were you attacking Speedy?"

Speedy nodded to show he wanted to know the answer. I looked at the ground, feeling guilty. I hadn't been able to control myself as I went at Speedy – he deserved it – but Robin had done nothing but help me with Diana.

"Rob, are you okay? Are the stitches okay?"

"Yes, no thanks to you." Robin snapped. "Now answer the question."

I looked away from Speedy and turned so my back was facing him. I didn't want him to know.

"Diana." I murmured. "He tried to kiss her."

Speedy was still asking what he did wrong.

"Does he know?" Robin inquired.

"He shouldn't have needed to." I spat back at Robin and then felt guilty once again.

"Can you tell me what's going on?" Speedy asked.

He was sitting outside of our conversation. He was confused and someone should answer. I nodded at Robin to give him permission.

"You tried to kiss his girlfriend." Robin told him.

"What? Diana Grayson? His girlfriend? How did he manage that?"  
Speedy had his mouth hanging open. He looked at us with complete disbelief.

_You better believe it, buddy._ I muttered internally.

"Does Batman know?" Speedy wondered, looking at Robin instead of me.

"Unfortunately." I said. "That's why I'm not allowed inside the manor."

"Wow, Batman is a grumpy guts, trying to ruin your chance with _**the**_Diana Grayson."

"Shut up." Robin mumbled.

We ignored him.

"And he's gone and told Bruce Wayne that I'm trouble as a civvie and..."

"Shut up." Robin said again, getting louder.

"What did you just say?" Speedy asked him, turning to Robin.

Robin leapt up and clamped his hand over his mouth, putting a finger to his own lips. I took the hint and fell silent. We sat there in silence for a few moments and then we heard voices. Robin slowly removed his hand from Speedy's mouth and scanned the trees.

'Zucco' Robin mouthed.


	11. Mr Wayne

Hey, here's the next chapter. Please review and all that. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Young Justice

* * *

There's a moment which defines each fight, the winners and the losers. That moment normally comes during the fight. For that fight, it came right at the beginning. It was two seconds after Robin had mouthed the name of the criminal all this was for. The two seconds had given me and Speedy chance to recollect all the stuff we knew about Zucco.

After those two seconds, we burst into action. That's what probably defined the fight.

We all dove into the cover of the trees. Robin and Speedy both climbed so they had the height advantage. I studied the clearing to work out what sort of location we were fighting in and then glanced up at Speedy who was spying on the approaching figures, an arrow trained on them. He used signs to inform me and Robin that we were dealing with four armed men.

_Easy._ I thought. _That's everyday stuff._

Then Speedy began to count higher and higher as more men approached. In the end, he was signalling to us that we were dealing with twelve attackers but no Zucco.

_He didn't even show up himself to get Diana. Must be a kidnap job. Zucco wouldn't leave... What he intends to do to Diana to his men. He would want to play a part in it._

Robin seemed to be trying to take control but he was angry. I could understand why – he had told me – but normally he could control it.

"Robin, go and find the others and tell them what's happening." I hissed.

"No." Robin hissed back. "You might attack Speedy again."

I knew it was a lame excuse. Robin's excuses were normally much better and colourful. I guess he was distracted by the situation. He had needed a way to make my logic seem bad and it hadn't worked very well but...

"I would never risk Diana, even if it did mean I could get back a Speedy." I told him.

Robin went to reply but the wood of the tree he was in splintered. A bullet had caused it. Zucco's black clad men hurried into the clearing, shouting to each other about Robin being there. Robin ducked into the shadows just as several guns were aimed at him.

Speedy took this as his cue, firing an arrow at the first two of the twelve men. It disarmed them and gave Robin time to dance out of the shadows and begin his attack. I joined them. I knocked three men down as they made a grab at Speedy. He fired arrows from the tree he was in, providing cover for me and Robin. Robin was battling Zucco's men with ease. He was flipping against their chests. Suddenly a falling thug knocked into me. I turned to see Speedy getting dragged down from the tree. He was using his bow to hit into men but there was little his struggling could do. I nodded at Robin as he finished off the eighth attacker we had knocked down. Only four remained and all four of them were trying to restrain Speedy. Me and Robin brofisted before diving in. I pulled two off Speedy, while Robin leapt up the tree and pulled Speedy with him. Robin then threw me his grappling line and I used it to tie the four men to the tree him and Speedy were sitting in.

"Should we go and tell the others what's happened?" Speedy asked.

"I'm not allowed inside the manor." I pointed out.

"And I shouldn't even be here." Robin said.

"But, bros, I can't take credit for them all and..."

He looked back at Robin but Robin was already gone. Speedy turned to me with a sigh.

"Getting too much like Bats." he remarked. "And you've gotta get this thing between you and Wayne sorted out soon."

He added the second bit in a whisper, seeing the thugs below us.

"I'm talking to him tomorrow, get the whole thing cleared up hopefully." I told him. "But it's in civvies and the others are going to ask so could you...?"

"Make them think it's normal?" Speedy smirked. "No one can make you seem normal. But I will try my best."

We looked down at the group of thugs.

"Go and get your glory." I encouraged. "Normally you'd be fighting for a chance like this."

Speedy smirked and leapt away. I decided to, as quick as a flash, check on Diana.

.

I heard a noise that resembled a laugh as I climbed silently up the wall. Robin had taught me how to

climb walls. I smiled and looked through the window. Diana was sitting on her bed, dressed in pyjamas, talking to Artemis – laughing with Artemis.

"So, there was me and Babs, dressed as clowns, telling this forty year old guy man that we were twenty and he looked straight at me, threw me over his shoulder and said 'that kid ain't twenty'. Babs shouldered him and looked him straight in the eyes. She pulled a face and said 'you ain't twenty either, can she have some of your years then?'"  
Artemis laughed at Diana's story and then settled down, smiling.

"Are you worried?" Artemis inquired. "Is that why you can't sleep?"

"No. I'm just excited." Diana said.

She frowned at the face Artemis pulled so shifted round. I watched as she shifted her gaze towards the window for just a second. I ducked down but couldn't have been sure if she had spotted me.

"I've been kidnapped, attacked, threatened, almost murdered and nearly been sold in slavery all since I moved in with Bruce. I'm used to it."

"Occupational hazard?"

"No, one of the peeks of the job!" Diana laughed back. "I'm going to go and get a drink. You want one?"  
"No, I'm fine." Artemis said.

I watched as Diana left and then Artemis' gaze fixed on me. I frowned but didn't make an attempt to duck. She walked over to the window and looked down at me.

"Are you spying on me?" she asked.

"No... No... Why would I be doing that?" I stammered.

"Why would you indeed?"

"Where's Diana gone?"

It was a perfectly innocent inquiry but Artemis had a way of blowing things out of proportion. I climbed through the window.

"Do you fancy Diana?"

"Would it matter if I did?" I asked, blushing.

"You fancy Diana!" Artemis smirked.

"Shut up!" I growled.  
I didn't mean it. I wasn't angry. I was stressed. There was no way I could get to Diana with her dad as a guard and I didn't want to get in trouble. Artemis wouldn't let it go and it was getting too much for me.

"Wayne is going to kill you."

"Bruce isn't really into killing." Diana said, causally leaning against the doorway with a glass of water in her hand.

Speedy was beside her, smiling. He was on the other side of the door and nodding towards me.

"How long were you there for?" I asked.

"I got here at 'Shut up!'. Diana was here longer." Speedy said.

"When did you get there?" Artemis snapped at her.

"Does it matter?" she asked, taking a sip from her drink.

She looked about to say something more when Kaldur rushed in.

"Kid Flash has gone missing and Superboy found all these thugs and... Kid Flash?"

"Hi." I said, slowly. "I think Speedy should explain this."

Speedy and Kaldur turned to leave and I turned to Artemis.

"I need to go." I said. "See you, Arty, see you Diana."

"See you." Diana said, getting into bed. "Night, night."

" Night, night." I replied.

Artemis silently smirked at me as she moved towards the door. I moved towards the window. Artemis slipped out first and I found myself smiling slightly as I looked at Diana.

"Kid Flash?" she called, half asleep.

"Yeah." I said as I climbed out of the open window.

"I've already got a boyfriend."

"He's one lucky guy." I remarked as I dropped down from the window.

.

The next day had come. I had slept outside in a shed. Wayne had opened his home to the other heroes (always with at least one on guard of course) but I had spent too long in the manor already so I wasn't allowed to make contact with her. It wasn't hard to sleep there and someone had given me a blanket during the night. I zipped home and grabbed some civilians clothes. I didn't stop to talk to uncle Barry or aunt Iris. When I got back to the shed, I got changed in a flash and then built up the courage to walk past my friends dressed as Wally West.

.

I walked down the road, trying to keep my head up. I had sped out and circled round, returning to normal speed on my approach. Speedy should have told the others that I would be showing up in civvies but I wasn't sure how they could react. They could laugh or scream or... I didn't want to think what they would do if they were in a destructive mood. As I neared the door, I could see Speedy, Artemis and Kaldur watching me from the windows of the manor while M'gann and Superboy were standing at the door. Then I considered running. I even considered not going but Bruce Wayne had asked me to go and it was for Diana. I couldn't run away.

"Hey, young man." Superboy said, in an emotionless monotone. "Are you meant to be up here?"

"Yeah, Mr Wayne asked me to come. I'm Wallace West, Diana's boyfriend."

"How sweet!" M'gann gasped. "Did she fall for your cheesy chat up lines?"

_You're not meant to know me._ I mentally growled.

_Sorry, I was just surprised that Speedy was not pranking us when he told us about you and her. _M'gann replied.

I smiled and told Superboy to tell Mr Wayne I was there. Superboy knocked on the door and it was opened by the family butler, Alfred.

"Hello, I'm here to see Mr Wayne. It's about Diana."

"Oh, yes, Master Wallace. Mr Wayne said you might come. He also informed me not to be surprised if you didn't. You would not be the first young man who had a thing for Diana but was too intimidated to follow through."

I gulped. The butler wasn't trying to be threatening; in fact, he was rather welcoming. It was the building. The first time I had seen it, it had been a party. Now, with masked eyes (even if they were my friends) staring down at me, the idea of a billionaire wanting to talk to me about me dating his daughter and the fact that criminals were trying to take over the place, was a little bit intimidating.

"It's not too late to turn around." the butler reminded me.

"I know it's not but..." I trailed off.

I glanced at M'gann who offered me a smile. Superboy looked a me with no emotion but I would tell he was rooting for me.

"Diana's worth it." I said.

Alfred nodded and lead me inside.

"Of course she is." Alfred nodded.

As the door closed, M'gann sent me a mental message.

_Go and get your girl, Wally._

_._

Alfred lead me through the corridors. I had seen it all before with Diana so I managed to focus on the butler and what he was saying.

"Miss Diana is training, like she normally does in the mornings. She's under the strict protection of the teenagers heroes you saw two of. She must have informed you that Boss Zucco is after her."

"She didn't need to. I was at the party." I reminded him.

"Oh yes. I'm sorry. I didn't recognise you without your mask." Alfred smiled. "Miss Barbara will be coming round today and then, if the heroes allow them, they will go out and celebrate their win at your school. If all goes well today then Master Bruce may allow you to join them since the heroes will be following them."

I smiled. I wouldn't mind celebrating with Diana in my civvies while the others had to watch. Alfred stopped beside a door and pointed at it.

"This is Master Bruce's study. He will be expecting you." Alfred told me and then left.

I knocked on the door to Bruce Wayne's study like the butler had said. I heard him call me in. Slowly I walked in.

.

The curtains of the room were closed and the lights were dimmed. I could barely see the man. Then the door was closed. I looked back and saw Bruce Wayne standing there.

"Mr Wayne?" I stammered. "Um... I'm here."

"I can see that." Wayne replied.

He turned the lights up and I gasped. He was holding a large sword in one hand and examining it with a smile.

"Sit." he instructed, pointing the sword towards the chair.

He walked around to the other side of the desk and stood their, smiling at me like a predator would look at their prey.

"So you're the young man who's caught my daughter's eye." Wayne remarked as I took a seat. "Interesting."

I went to speak but a glare from Wayne silenced me. He lifted the sword.

"There is a story behind this sword." he began, pointing the tip straight at me. "Four hundred years ago, a young man fell in love with a beautiful young maiden. They were happy together and both very deeply in love. The young man, however was foolish."

The way Wayne rolled the word was threatening. He looked like he was going to imply that I was foolish, but he continued without making the insult.

"He ended up kissing another young lady. He had no feelings for this young lady, he simply thought she was pretty and in the spur of the moment, kissed her. The kiss grew into something more and the young man began to question his love for the first young maiden. He told the young maiden what he had been doing and how he had treated her and then left her to go and find love with the other woman. The other woman had only enjoyed the thrill of chasing a taken man so left him as he declared his love."

"That's an interesting story, but I don't see what it has to do with the sword." I said.

"I'm not finished." Bruce Wayne said. "The young maiden was left heart broken. He was her first love and one of the few people she trusted. She refused to see him then he returned seeking forgiveness due to heart break. The father however did."

Then I began to sense a thinly veiled threat. I gulped as Wayne angled the blade even closer to my throat.

"He didn't like what the young man had done, so, one night, he crept into the young man's home with a sword. He cut the young man's throat and let him die. Later the young maiden moved on and the young man was completely forgotten, not just by the maiden but by everyone who had known him."

I managed a weak smile and nodded. Wayne turned away and placed the sword on the table. He didn't look at me when he spoke. He had his hands clasped behind his back and looked very official. He was frightening in a protective sort of way.

"You can date my daughter, West, just bear that story in mind."

I turned to leave and walked towards the door. I turned back at the door and saw Wayne had followed me with his stern blue eyes. There was a smile on his lips that faded as soon as I turned. If I had not had super speed I wouldn't have registered it.

"One question about the story:" I began, trying to hide my smirk. "If everyone forgot about the young man, then how did you know about him to tell the story?"

Wayne smiled warmly and nodded.

"That's the sort of boy my daughter would go for. For a moment I was worried you would be some sort of straight faced..." Wayne paused. "I like you, West, but don't think I won't hurt you if you hurt my daughter."

.

As I walked out, I heard screaming. I rushed forwards. The screaming was cut short and then I heard my friends shouting.

"Diana? Diana? Are you okay?"

That's was Speedy's voice.

"Miss Grayson?"

I ran into what looked like a training room. I was going on the verge of normal speed, almost breaking into super speed. Bruce Wayne ran in after me.

"Diana?" he shouted, running towards the three superheroes.

Artemis, Kaldur and Speedy were standing around a lying down figure.

"What happened?" Bruce asked.

"She fell." Kaldur answered. "We'll need to get her checked out."

I looked up and saw a set of trapeze bars. They were set lower than normal but still would leave a nasty mark.

"We managed to slow her fall but..." Speedy said, helping Diana up.  
She had a few bruises, a large black eye. I thought about how it had come up quickly but I didn't really care.

"Don't just stand there, get Alfred." Bruce ordered.

I rushed away. As soon as I was out of the view of anyone in the room, I sped away to find Alfred.

.

Alfred had checked Diana over and it was clear it was just bruising. Speedy had taken me to the side as Diana was being looked after. Bruce was comforting Diana while Kaldur and Artemis were trying to work out what had happened.

"Did it go well?"

"He told me this story and then said I could so... I'm not sure if he likes me or not but he's letting me date Diana."

"That's great, bro." Speedy congratulated with a smile. "Pity she's got a black eye."

"Yeah, that black eye is strange." I said. "How did she get that falling from a height?"

"What are you getting at, Wally? Is Robin rubbing off on you?" Speedy asked.

I didn't want to seem paranoid. I was worried about Diana. The black eye should have come from a fight. It looked like someone had purposefully punched her.

"I just don't like it." I admitted slowly.

That was when Barbara walked into the lounge. She saw Diana and gasped. Diana said she would explain later and that they needed to celebrate their victory first. The two girls got up and Kaldur informed Diana that Superboy and Miss Martian would be joining them.

"Isn't Miss Martian green skinned?" Diana inquired.

"She'll shape shift into a pale skinned human." Kaldur explained to her.

"Okay." Diana said, glancing towards me and then nervously looking at Bruce to see if I had got his permission or not.

"Wally, do you want to come with me and Babs, I mean, you've just come over from Central and..."  
Speedy immaturely wolf-whistled but I nodded and told Diana I would catch up if she went to get ready. I turned to Speedy.

"Me, Robin and you have to meet up tonight. You have to tell us everything about her and how to bag ourselves girls like Diana Grayson." Speedy instructed as we said our goodbyes.


	12. Play park

I don't know what it was when I heard Barbara suggest double dating but I felt a pit form in my stomach. As Diana's butler had driven me, Diana, Barbara, Superboy and M'gann into town (Superboy and M'gann were dressed in civvies and M'gann had shaped shifted her skin into a more earthly colour), M'gann had let it slip that her and Superboy were dating. That was what made Barbara secretly suggest it.

Diana ordered the car to be stopped and then climbed out and had a hurried talk with Barbara. I slid down the catch that linked the section Alfred was in, to the part that me and the others were in.

"Which of the others want every juicy secret from me and Diana's date?"

"Artemis and Speedy mostly... Although Superman sounded very interested in it."

"How did he find out?" I hissed a little too loudly.

"I text it to everyone." Superboy said, slowly.

"For crying out loud." I grimaced. "How many people have replied?"

"Nearly everyone. There was quite a few congratulations." M'gann smiled.

I pulled out my phone and turned it off – I didn't want to have to deal with everyone and anyone sending me texts while I was out celebrating. I was about to scold them more when Diana and Barbara climbed back into the car. Diana squeezed my hand.

"We can double date if you like." Diana said slowly, almost as if it was hard. "But only if everyone agreed."  
Diana looked at me with puppy dog blue eyes, quickly mouthing the word no. I frowned and shook my head, thinking of an excuse that would seem causal but also making a mental note of asking Diana about it later.

"No way. I'm not going to risk my girlfriend running off with some super hero." I stated.

"But..." Diana tried but I could tell it wasn't too hard.

_That's my girl._ I thought with pride. _Now, no double dating!_

The last bit I addressed towards M'gann. I didn't like riding her eyes of excitement but

"It's okay." Superboy said.

He clearly didn't like the idea of a double date as much as me and Diana. With a sigh, M'gann linked up our thoughts. Diana and Barbara both gasped as they were linked up but they soon recovered.

_I've linked us up so we can communicate if something happens. It's just a precaution but I believe it will be better in the long run._ M'gann explained.

_But you can hear what I'm thinking!_ Diana thought. _Robin is the best superhero in the world._

She then cast a gentle smirk at the superheroes in the car with us.

_She's from Gotham. She's biased._ Barbara pointed out. _I prefer Kid 't know why just..._

I managed to hide my blush. If it had been Diana I wouldn't have been able to but, thankfully, it was Barbara.

_Here's the plan. You lot celebrate and me and M'gann will follow behind at a distance. We'll go across the street wherever you go and we'll keep in contact like this, okay?_

_Yeah._ I agreed. _Just don't keep spying on our thoughts because..._

_He is so hot when he tries to take control I mean..._

Diana's train of thought stopped abruptly when she realised that everyone else could hear her. I blushed and she blushed, then, almost simultaneously, we both slid back in our seats and attempted to hide our blushes. When that didn't work, we turned to each other and tried to host a conversation between ourselves but we ended up blushing more and...

_Will something like that happen? _Barbara inquired, pulling on one of Diana's bright red cheeks like some sort of strange aunt.

Diana batted her hand away, moaning out her friend's name.

"Aw, is baby bird all embarrassed?" Barbara smirked. "Serves you right. I'm sure you told that male archer something about me and..."

"He likes red heads!" Diana protested, backing into my chest.

I smiled and looked at M'gann and Superboy who nodded knowingly. Then Alfred opened the catch between the driver's seat and us.

"We're here." Alfred informed the group but looked directly at Diana.

"Thanks, Alfie. I'll call you when I need a ride back."

.

Diana and Barbara had planned their celebration well. They had decided to start at the park then walk to the police station to show me something 'really special' and then hang around in what was left of the Amusement Mile. They assured me it was safe so long as the Joker was in Arkham – which he was.

At the park, the two girls taken control of the play equipment so they could perform for the other children. Diana had spent most of her time upside down, her short size making her hair only lightly touching the ground. Half way through performing, Barbara came to sit on a bench next to me and just watch as Diana showed the children what she could do.

"She always does this." Barbara explained. "It's not showing off. She loves to do it and people love to watch. She's always going to be a performer."

There was a moment of awkward silence between us. I wasn't sure if we had anything in common other than caring immensely for Diana.

"So how did you and Diana meet?" I asked.

Barbara smiled and then turned to me. I noticed however that her eyes looked sad.

"When Diana's parents died, she had no one. The closest thing she had to her old life was Zucco chasing after her but she was nine and terrified. She barely ate, slept or talked. She barely spoke, even in other languages. My dad needed her to give evidence to get Zucco a conviction but she only spoke to Bruce and even then that was in whispers so... Anyway they decided she needed a friend and they tried other people who had had similar things happen to them but Diana didn't bond with them. Then, just by accident, my dad asked me to watch Diana while she was round our house. I was doing from French work and Diana spoke fluent French. She shifted round and helped me translate it, acting out every word I didn't understand."

I imagined it. Diana silently dancing around a living room, showing Barbara what each French word meant.

"And then, as she leant more American, she told me about stuff and soon I had learn some Romani and we found out how much we had in common and... Te'sorthene: it's sim to a choomer, kushti for kek till it's pordered atween dui."

"What does that mean?" I asked.

"It's Romani. It means something along the lines of 'Friendship: it's like a kiss, good for nothing until it is divided between two."

"That's pretty..."

I struggled to find the right word and Diana approached us before I could.

"Can you tell me another Romani phrase?" I asked, smiling.

Diana nodded and leant in. She flicked her eyes towards M'gann and Superboy as she moved closer to me. She looked on the edge, nervous about speaking to me in her native tongue.

"Tute can hair a covva ferridearer if you jāl shukár." she whispered into my ear.

"What?"

"You can do a thing better if you do it secretly." Diana giggled, pulling away.

I smiled and took Diana's hand, squeezing it.

"Have you finished performing to Gotham's youths?"

"Yeah. I think, I mean..."

Diana turned to bowed to the children, getting a round of applause from some of the children and their parents. My hand was still catch in hers so she pulled me down with her and I bowed with her. Barbara shook her head.

_We're making a move._ I sent over to M'gann telepathically. _Now to the police station._

_._

"Barbara! Diana!" a man dressed in a trench coat called.

Me, Diana and Barbara had been running through the offices, towards a set of stairs.

"Ginger kid!" the man shouted.

"Dad!" Barbara moaned.

"James!" Diana smirked.

"What have a told you about running in the corridors?" Barbara's dad asked Barbara.

Then he turned to Diana.

"You are getting so cheeky, young madam." he pointed out.

"And you moaned when I was quiet." Diana replied. "You were asking for it."

The man turned to me and stared.

"Who's this?"

"My boyfriend." Diana answered. "Wally West meet Commissioner Gordon. Gordon meet Wally West."

I nodded at the man and then Gordon and Barbara got involved in a conversation of their own. I smiled at Diana and nodded at her.

_Where are you, superheroes?_ Diana asked, pretending to mentally shout.

_We're in the shop across the road but we can't see you. _Superboy reported.

_Do you think you will be safe in the police station?_ M'gann asked.

_No, everyone here are criminals. _I thought sarcastically. _Of course we're going to be safe._

Diana smirked at me and then we moved towards each other, smiling.

"Come on you two." Barbara called. "Up to the roof."

Barbara grabbed Diana's hand and pulled the girl with her.

.

Some things, even when you are a superhero, you don't expect to happen. One of those things was to stand on the same roof of the legendary Bat-signal. I had seen the signal lots of time. It was the only thing that could get the attention of Batman, Robin and Batgirl. They pretty much had to run their lives around that. Robin had once said that any social life he had was stopped when the light hit the sky. It was a great but annoying way to live life.

Barbara and Diana rushed over to it, childishly in awe of it.

"I love this thing." Diana remarked.  
"Of course you would, you're a Batman fan through and through. You think the Flash's have one, Wally?"

I smirked and ran my hand over the metal of the Bat-signal.

"I think they'd like one." I remarked.

"Well... They can't." Diana smirked. "This is Gotham's."

To make her point, she climbed on the Bat-signal and sat up right at the top. Barbara laughed at Diana's childish behaviour but it was clear we wouldn't be able to get her down unless she wanted to.

"Remember what Bruce did last time you wouldn't get down?" Barbara asked like a mother punishing a small child.

"Yes." Diana nodded. "Wally help me down."

I moved closer and reached up towards Diana, not exactly sure what I was meant to do. Then Diana, who was surprisingly strong, pulled me up with her.

"Now turn it on and see who's butt gets burnt first!" Diana called.

"What?"  
"When Diana refused to get down last time, Bruce and my dad turned the light on and waited for it to heat up." Barbara explained to me.

Diana wriggled under one of my arms and smiled at me.

"Your eyes are the same colour as Barbara's." Diana informed me, pointing at my green eyes.

"You've got a thing for green eyed gingers. Tell me something I don't know." Barbara moaned. "Just get down before my dad gets up here and arrests you two. Diana, he'll put you under observation, throw you back in Juvie!"

"Back in Juvie!" I exclaimed and heard M'gann and Superboy both mentally exclaim it. "What do you mean: _back_?"

"When Diana was first orphaned, they didn't send her to an orphanage." Barbara explained, not letting her friend do it.

Diana, however, didn't want her friend to have to tell it to me. She smiled as she said it but there seemed to been sadness in her blue eyes.

"They didn't have space. They sent me to Gotham's Juvenile Delinquency prison for roughly two weeks. Bruce got me out when he found out that I was sharing a cell with a girl who beat her younger sister half to death because she was prettier than her. I've still got scars from what she did to me."

"Diana, I..." I began but Diana slid off the light.

She announced she was going inside and left.

"No one does. No one thinks Diana had a past like that. They think she grew up in the lap of luxury. There was one time that she didn't have enough money to get food so her mother and her father taught her to forage. I'm only telling you this because you are the first boy that Diana has let into her life like this."

I smiled and looked at Barbara.

"I'm go to see if Diana's okay."


	13. Ghost Train

**I own the particularly nice hat I am wearing but, no, I don't own Young Justice. I will however, be willing to trade all of my wonderful hats for ownership of Young Justice.**

_Where's Diana?_ I asked telepathically as I walked out into the street.

Gordon had told me she had left the police building, saying that we knew where she was going but I didn't. I called Barbara up and got her to come down.

"Where's Diana gone?" I asked.

M'gann answered me telepathically.

_Superboy followed her to Amusement Mile._ M'gann told me. _He lost her inside the park but she's still in there. He's sure of that._

I looked at Barbara and she nodded.

"I know where she'll be." Barbara said.

"Great. Do you want to go and find Miss Martian while I got and look for her already or...?"

"Miss Martian can catch up. If Diana's gone where I think she's gone then she'll need a bit of support."

.

Barbara explained on the way about Amusement Mile. The Amusement Mile had once been a great theme park in Gotham. It had been popular and a great way to relax and let off steam. The small problem was that it was in Gotham and not many families had enough money to do that so it fell into debt. Six years ago it tried to stage a comeback, asking a famous circus to perform there. That circus was the Haley's circus and the disaster there had pretty much caused the theme park to shut down. After the theme park had been shut down, the Joker had begun to use it as a base because he didn't care if Batman found him most of the time, in fact he was eager for it to happen. When the Joker was in prison, Barbara had informed me, Amusement Mile was pretty much safe so long as you hadn't upset the gangs. Diana hadn't but she was also a teenaged girl and the two girls shouldn't really be going to the theme park without an adult. The two girls did anyway because it was fun. They kept away from the West side, however, because that was where the Haley's International circus tent still stood.

.

Barbara lead me up to what was left of a kiddie's roller-coaster. It was called the 'Glow Worm'. The carriages looked like little green worms and they went round on a small circular track, going over a few bumps and drops. We had past Superboy on the way in and he had said that Diana had gone in that direction which had only confirmed Barbara's suspicions. Barbara leapt over the metal gate and dropped under the roller-coaster, walked over to it's central column and beginning to climb. When I looked at the metal structure she was climbing, I was a bit nervous.

"It's just like climbing a tree." she called down and reached down a hand to help me.

The Glow Worm ride was under a small wooden gazebo and that seemed to be where Barbara was heading. She was climbing into the rafters and disappeared from view for a second. I followed her through the gap she had gone through. I'm not claustrophobic but the space I found myself in was rather tiny. Barbara pulled out her phone and used it as a torch. She scanned the rafters and lit up thousands upon thousands of spiders webs. Against the wood there were scratches. There were drawings of stick figure people and, right in the centre, something I recognised. The Robin symbol. I moved towards it and stared as Barbara came to the conclusion that Diana hadn't been there that day.

"Who did that?" I asked.

"I don't know." Barbara replied, looking at it. "Could even have been the boy wonder himself. It's not like anyone keeps a record of who comes up here."

"So, where could Diana be?" I asked.

_M'gann, _I called out, sending a message to M'gann that only she would get.

M'gann did as I had asked and cut Barbara from the mind link.

_Can you track Diana? _I requested.

_I'll try. _M'gann promised.

_Thanks._

I waited a moment before M'gann answered.

_She's in the Ghost Train._

"Okay, where else could she be?" I asked.

"I'm trying to think of the places I don't want her to be." Barbara said. "The dangerous ones or the ones that are homes to gangs."

"Which one is closest? We'll have to go and check it out."

I didn't like her answer. I didn't like it one bit.

"There's a gang hide out not that far from here. It's in the Ghost Train."

.

The horrible thing about Gotham city is that everything that no matter what it is, it is more terrifying in Gotham. Ghost Trains happen to follow this rule. The Amusement Mile's Ghost Train was full of threatening and rude words as well as the creatures the jumped out at you as you walked through. It was full of wax models and each of them were of witches or werewolves or ghosts or other creatures that plagued childhood nightmares. Barbara seemed calm, leading the way through without a care in the world. I wasn't. I jumped at nearly everything, I knew Diana was in there but I also knew that one of the models could actually be an armed gang member.

Barbara stopped outside a large door and smiled.

"This is it." she said. "It's were all the new exhibits were put together and the old ones fixed. The gang uses it was a base.

_The room I'm outside now, is Diana inside it?_ I asked.

_Yes. _

_Great._ I said.

"What do we do if she's inside and the gang have her?" I asked.

"Call the heroes." Barbara suggested.

"Okay and what do we do if there is no time?"

"We act." Barbara said with all the conviction in the world.

I nodded but realised how insane the plan seemed. It wasn't even a real plan, just a statement. I pressed the door open an inch and saw a gang of roughly twenty boys in their late teens and early twenties and a handful of girls. Two of the young men, two particular strong and brutish ones, were holding Diana's hands behind her back. She was struggling but, even if she did get free, there was no where for her to run.

"Why are you snooping around?" one of the men, the oldest and clearly the leader, snapped.

"I wasn't snooping!" Diana protested.

"Well you must have been looking for trouble and, boy, did you find it."

The gang leader turned to the men who were holding Diana.

"Take the pretty little..."

There's no nice way of putting this but he called Diana a word I will not be repeating. Do you understand what that means? It means he called her a lovely little swear words that I would never call any lady – even Artemis (if you can call her a lady).

"Tie her up and put her in the back room. Maybe she'll answer our questions in a little while."

Diana's wrists had rope wrestled round them and then she was pushed towards some sort of store cupboard. She was thrown inside and the door locked.

"Dat brat was kinda familiar. Think she's da one dat Zucco is after?" one of the gang members asked.

"What? That circus freak? No way, she's, like, twelve. The boss man is after some fifteen year old."

_They work for Zucco. It's only a matter of time before they recognise her and hand her over to him._ My mind was racing. I looked at Barbara and knew that we didn't have time to waste calling in the others. She was beginning to back away, clearly with an idea forming.

.

We stole some costumes off the witches display. Pulling them on other out normal clothes, we waited until some of the gang had left. I wasn't sure how late it had gotten but it seemed to have gotten pretty late. As every person left, me and Barbara would pretend to be part of a display. My tummy had begun to rumble when the boss decided to check on Diana.

"Check the brat. If she's not going to talk, we'll leave her overnight, let her panic."

The door was opened and Diana was dragged out. She glared at the leader of the gang and spat in his face. The whole gang had been watching Diana and the leader so they were offended greatly by what Diana did.

_Diana, you seriously need to stop being violent towards dangerous people. _I thought from the doorway.

The gang leader produced a small pocket knife and placed it against Diana's neck.

"I was prepared to let you live. Man, I was even prepared to make the boss man go easy on you when we sold you over but now..."

Me and Barbara realised we had to make our move. We crept into the room. Barbara moved silently for a civilian. She walked straight up behind the gang's leader and cackled in a witch-like way. The gang leader, along with his gang, jumped and turned.

"Let my slave girl go or I'll turn you into frogs." Barbara cackled.

I smirked from where I was standing and zipped round, almost as if I had teleported. I appeared behind Diana and picked her up by the waist. Diana, due to her small size, was slow light I didn't even need to brace myself.

"No, please, don't let them take me!" Diana screamed, recognising me and Barbara instantly.

I smiled and cackled just like Barbara. The gang turned and was shocked at how I had just suddenly appeared behind Diana.

"They'll eat me."

"Just take her." someone in the gang whimpered.

_Are you really that superstitious? Cause I'm sure I could arrange a light show to really freak you out if you want._ I thought happily, moving towards the exit with Diana.

"If you so much as set eyes on my slave again, you will become frogs and high school children will dissect you!" Barbara finished and then left after me.

.

"'High school children will dissect you'?" Diana repeated in disbelief.

We had explained the situation to Superboy and M'gann who had insisted on checking Diana over several times. We were standing by the rusted gates to the Amusement Mile. It was evening, the sun was setting despite it being summer.  
"Not everyone spends their life thinking up violent threats." Barbara replied.

"Thank though." Diana said, looked at me.

She took my hand and squeezed it.

"This will be our little secret." Diana said, just as a sleek black sports car pulled up and Bruce Wayne got out.

He stormed towards our group, specifically Diana. I could tell he was angry. I tried to pull Diana behind me but she moved in front and looked straight at her father like a matador challenging a charging bull into attacking.

"You have done some stupid things Diana but this!" Bruce roared. "Zucco is out of prison and you go and play in the one place he is most likely to find you!"

"Look! All safe!" Diana protested. "We didn't even go inside!"

She was lying but, boy, was she good. She lied like an expert and her flawless face was not giving anything away. She had raised her hands openly and that was when I noticed two red rings around her wrists – most likely from where the ropes had rubbed. Diana noticed it as well and put her hands down, letting her sleeves slip over the marks.

"What happened to your wrists?" Bruce demanded.

Diana looked down, she had no explanation.

"I we feeling a bit upset 'cause I found the police file on Zucco while we were at the police station. I stormed over here and then began to explore but I was grabbed by this gang who thought I was sniffing around their base. They kinda tied me up and threw me into a cupboard. They were going to hand me over to Zucco but Wally and Barbara saved me."

It wasn't a complete lie but it wasn't completely the truth either.

"And where were the heroes through all this?" Bruce asked.

"Me and Wally told them to wait outside because..."

Diana did some sort of nod to imply something and Bruce understood. He looked at me and then told Diana to get into the car. She frowned and looked at Barbara, me and the others helplessly. She then sent Barbara look at the teenaged girl clearly understood better than I did. Bruce turned to me.

"Are any of you considering telling me the truthful version of the story?"

"No." I told him. "We saved Diana from the gang."

"Their school is having a dance in three days. I'll get you a suit, get the school to let you and have you dropped off home. Suit fitting is in two days." Bruce told me. "I'll send a car round to yours for both the suit fitting and the party."

"What?" I called after him. "Why?"

"Because Gotham Academy school parties are dull and boring and involve Diana spending the whole night getting hit on so..." Bruce said and climbed into the car.

I turned to the two heroes and told them that they should go back to the manor with Bruce. Superboy nodded and picked up M'gann, flying off. I turned to Barbara.

"She gave you a look." I said.

"What? A _look_?" Barbara exclaimed.

"What did it mean?" I asked, not buying her act.

"Nothing. You better head home." she told me, quickly.

"I could walk you to the police station; it's on the way to the train station." I said.

Barbara shook her head and raced off, saying she had left her jacket in the Glow Worm.

.

I followed Barbara. I used my super speed to follow her through the Amusement Mile. She was heading back towards the Ghost Train and I wanted to know why. Maybe Robin was rubbing off on me or something but I was feeling rather paranoid. I knew something was up. Barbara began to walk down the tracks and I grabbed her arm.

"What are you doing?" I hissed. "What if the gang is still there?"

"Wally...!" Barbara moaned.

"You better start explaining this soon." I demanded. "Maybe I'll just call up your dad or something."

I reached for my phone and wondered if Barbara was going to call my bluff. I didn't even have her dad's number.

"Diana must have been looking around here for a reason. The look she gave me told me that it was something she wanted me to check out." Barbara admitted, biting her lip. "So, you can either help me find it or..."

"I'll help you." I said.

Then I had an idea. I looked at Barbara and then smiled.

"There must have been a sign on the outside that told Diana to look in here. This sign must have continued to whatever freaked Diana out." I concluded.

Barbara looked at me as if I had just created sliced bread.

"You genius!" she breathed and hurried outside.

.

There had been a sign. There had been an entwined D.G. symbol out on the outside of the building. Me and Barbara had followed them through the corridors, finding each one. As we walked along, Barbara talked to me.

"So you're going to be Diana's date to the dance?" she inquired.

"Seems like I am going to be." I replied.

"You know that there will undoubtedly be drama at this party. It's not a dance unless there's a shouting match."

I sensed a smirk coming from Barbara as she lead the way through the corridor. Then I saw a bit of writing on one wall. I grabbed Barbara's arm and stopped her, turning her to face the writing. The Ghost Train was lit up by ultra-violet light which makes certain paints glow. The message on the wall was written in a dark but glowing paint. It looked like the marks could have been made in some form of glowing blood. Barbara's eyes widened and she looked at it.

'_Just like Joan of Arc, Diana!_'

"Oh, no." I murmured. "Not another one."

"Another one! You better tell me everything, West."

"On our first date this guy walked up to Diana and told her that and I guess that she's been thinking about it a lot and it seems to be some sort of threat." I explained and sighed, looking down. "I'm getting really worried about her."

"I'll tell my dad that she's being threatened." Barbara informed me. "He'll tell Batman and..."

I stopped her and shook my head.

"No, it'll get her in trouble. There's already enough pressure on her. Keep this between us."

"But she's being threatened...!"

"She's being threatened by the man who murdered her parents and she's keeping it a secret. There has to be a reason." I informed her.

I looked at Barbara and then we left.


	14. Night time

I had taken Barbara to the police station and saw it was very dark. My radio had buzzed as I had been heading towards the manor and I answered it.

"Hey, KF, where are you?" Robin asked down the radio. "Ever wanted to answer the Bat-signal?"

I looked up into the sky and saw the bright light of the Bat-signal.

"Yeah!" I cheered down the radio and raced off.

.

Robin was standing next to Gordon. Speedy was with him but a bit detached from them.

"Hello." I said, walking over to Speedy.  
"Bats is on a League mission. He didn't want Robin to answer the call but Rob convinced him that the team was in the area and me and you would always be with him." Speedy explained.

Robin began to walk over.

"Gordon's daughter, Barbara, said there's a gang working for Zucco and we need to go and see what we can find out from them." Robin said. "Off to Amusement Mile."

As Gordon disappeared inside, Robin smiled. I grabbed Robin and Speedy and explained the events of that day. Speedy smirked at me as we left the roof.

"You still need to tell us how we're meant to get girlfriends like Diana."

.

I didn't like visiting the Amusement Mile. I couldn't work out how Robin could live in Gotham, let alone Diana. I wanted to go back home and call Diana.

"So, the Ghost Train..." Speedy said.

"I know where it is." I said. "Diana was attacked by the group."

I thought back to the message that had been on the wall and told Robin that I needed him to look over it.

"Okay. I can do that." Robin nodded. "Anything for someone like Diana."

"What about me?" I whimpered as we leapt into the park.

"I like Diana better." Robin replied.  
"So you know her?" Speedy inquired.

"She goes to my school." Robin said after a few seconds.

Speedy laughed.  
"Better keep your eyes open, KF, if a dashing young raven haired boy begins to get close to Diana, you better get ready to fight off Robin." Speedy smirked.  
"I don't think you have much to worry about." Robin pointed out with a nod.

"Will you be coming to the party? 'Cause my girlfriend's dad is making me go." I asked, hopefully.

"No, there are always fights there and I don't have time or energy to deal with them as well as these." Robin smirked. "Good luck."

.

When we walked in, the gang were whimpering. They still seemed pretty upset about the witches that had attacked them. Me, Robin and Speedy couldn't help but smile over it. Robin's signature cackle made the group all jump. They all looked at us.

"What happened here?" Speedy asked, looking at me.

"They messed with the wrong kids." I smirked.

"Witches?" Robin murmured, smiling.

He looked at me and I pointed at the leader. Speedy grabbed the gang leader and pulled him to his feet. He pretty much threw him onto a table.

"Speedy, can you question him while I go and show Robin the message I saw earlier?"

"It would be my pleasure. He shouldn't do round picking on girls."

.

Robin and me looked around. Robin had read the message and taken a few pictures.

"What do you make of it?"  
"I don't really understand it. It's clearly for Diana so much link to her in some way. Joan of Arc was know due to her fight against the English army for the French. She was only a teenager when she lead the army. When she was captured by the English, a ransom was sent to the king of the French but he refused to pay. Due to her dressing like a man, she ending up in the same jail as male criminals and was later burnt at the stake for her 'crimes'."

"What's that got to do with Diana?" I asked, running my hands over the paint.

"I really have no idea." Robin said.

Then his radio bleeped. It was Kaldur.

"Hello." Robin said.

"We have a situation. Diana Grayson is missing."

I began to panic.

_Has Zucco got his hands on her? Will I ever see her again?_

"You have got to be kidding me." Robin muttered. "I was having such a good night."

.

Speedy met us outside. He had some news to tell us. He had got the gang leader to talk.

"No time." I informed him. "Diana Grayson's gone missing."

"Bats want me to check the area." Robin called and zoomed off on his bike.

I turned to Speedy as he climbed onto his motorbike.

"We better get to the manor." I said.

"KF, if you had to tell her about this, about what we do, would you?" he asked.

I looked at him as if he was insane. It was so off topic, so...

"Why?"

"Because I can tell you love her. Normally you would be racing off with Robin but..."

Speedy stopped.

"Depends on the circumstances." I told him and then sped off.

There was only one reason behind it. I knew I was lying. I would tell Diana no matter what happened. I trusted her completely.

.

When we reached the manor, everyone was rushing around. Kaldur was getting Artemis to search the grounds. M'gann and Superboy were asking Bruce is he had seen anything strange. The butler was trying to work but also being worried about Diana's well being. Speedy automatically went to find out what he could do. I disappeared into Diana's bedroom. The bed hadn't been slept in. There were no signs that Diana had even been in her room. I felt a feeling of pain swell up in my chest.

"Diana?" I called out into the clearly empty room.

_**Amazingly**_ no one answered.

"You know you're quite a trouble maker." I informed the missing girl.

I glanced at the open window and moved towards it.

"Knowing you, you've probably snuck (sneaked?) out."

"Yeah, that's kinda what happened." a voice called up.

I looked out of the window to see Diana standing in the grounds, looking a bit embarrassed.

"Can you help me? I uh... I can't climb up."

"Why?"

"I fell this morning and there's this bruise on my side." Diana answered.

I remembered and pulled back, looking around her room.

"There should be a rope down the side of my bed." Diana called up.

I would have asked who kept a rope down the side of their bed but I wanted to help Diana. I held the rope as I threw one end down.

"Come on up." I called.

I felt the rope tighten as it took Diana's weight. She smiled as she climbed up and looked at me.

"Thanks." she said, clutching her side.  
"Do you want me t take a look at it?"

"Um... No... Could you just..."

Diana winced in pain and pulled away from her side. I saw blood seeping through the material of her top.

"Diana, you're bleeding."

"It's just a scratch." Diana managed through gritted teeth.

"How did you get it?" I asked, helping Diana lie down on her bed.

"A couple of weeks ago I crashed a quad-bike I was driving. I cut my side. It's been stitched but..."

I gasped as I lifted her top just far enough so I could see the cut.

"Oh man. That's bad." I breathed. "Is there anyone I should get?"

"Alfred, Bruce and some doctor." Diana murmured, lying back in bed.

I raced from the room.

.

Bruce had been a bit annoyed when I said that Diana had shown up after sneaking out but the moment I had mentioned her injury, he raced up into her room. I joined him.

"How are you, kiddo?" Bruce inquired as he knelt beside Diana.

Kaldur was calling a doctor was we spoke.

"Been better." Diana winced.

"You're going to be fine." Bruce assured her.

"Yeah, Babs would kill me if me sneaking out to go..." Diana sighed.

Alfred rushed in.

"How is she?" he asked.

"She's fine." Bruce said. "As soon as Leslie gets here, we'll get her sorted out."

"Where were you, Miss Diana?" Alfred asked.

"I was in town." Diana answered. "I met up with a friend to do homework."

Then Speedy raced in.

"I called the doctor." Speedy said. "She's going to get here as soon as possible."

"Good." I said, squeezing Diana's hand in a comforting way. "As soon as your doctor gets here we'll sort you out."

"And since you can't go anywhere, I'm going to remind you of the dangers of running off in Gotham in the night. Two-Face, Joker, Zucco and Penguin, guys like that you know what they'll do to you." Bruce said. "What if Zucco had found you?"

"Bruce, please..." Diana trailed off.

There was a knock on the door downstairs. Speedy looked out of the window and told us that the doctor was outside. I didn't want to leave Diana but I knew she needed a doctor. I zipped downstairs and helped the doctor go upstairs.


	15. The dance

The doctor, a woman going by the name of Leslie, was a kind woman who offered to do the operation at her surgery that night. It meant that Bruce and Diana had gone off to it.

"We're going to need to assign Diana someone to constantly protect her, or at least have one hero there for her the whole time." Kaldur said.

He had sent Superboy and Artemis to guard Diana at the hospital. The rest of us were in the lounge, trying to work out what to do. Speedy and me were sitting next to each other, trying to make sense of everything.

"Did you get anything from those thugs?" I asked, looking at Speedy when everything had fallen silent.

The others didn't know about the thugs that had attacked Diana but they didn't force us into explaining the story.

"Yeah. They've got a meeting with Zucco, their boss, in three days."

I realised that was the date I was going to Gotham Academy's school dance. I frowned but nodded.

"When and where?" Kaldur asked.

"The warehouse district at eleven." Speedy answered.

"Great." I said, knowing that would be after the party.

I smiled and looked at Speedy.

"So, we'll ambush them while they're meeting, arrest Zucco right then before he can do any more damage." Kaldur said.

"That sounds like a plan!" M'gann exclaimed.

.

Two days passed and I was left waiting outside. Kaldur had tried to put me on duty looking after Diana but I had told Speedy I would be busy and he had happily taken my place as Diana's defender. Uncle Barry was excited for me.

"Two posh suits brought for you." he said as I sat at the breakfast table in jeans and a smart shirt, trying to look smart. "Soon you'll have a whole wardrobe."

"I just need to have something that I can wear at a posh school."

"You know, Wally, Diana's probably the best thing that ever happened to you. A beautiful girl your age who completely adores you, has stacks of money and is calm under pressure. When should I start arranging the wedding for?"

"We've only been dating for a while." I replied.

"And she's also a good influence. You've actually brushed your hair!" Uncle Barry exclaimed. "Just remember there are other girls out there."  
"What do you mean by that?" I asked.

The conversation had suddenly got a bit graver, more serious. Uncle Barry slid into a seat next to me.

"I mean that Diana isn't your only option so it doesn't matter that much if it doesn't work out."

Then there was a knock at the door. I got up and strolled over to it. I opened it and smiled at Alfred.

"Are you ready for your suit fitting Master Wallace?" Alfred asked.

I was a bit taken back by the sports car the butler had shown up in. It was black and the doors opened upwards. It also looked incredibly fast.

"I apologise for the limo being unavailable but it is in the shop and Master Bruce is taking Miss Diana out for ice-cream since her surgery went so well. He is using the newer version of this car leaving you with the, in Miss Diana's words, antique."  
"You may need to help her with her history, Mr Pennyworth, this car is awesome!" I exclaimed before I managed to stop myself.

Alfred smiled at my childishness.

"Uncle Barry, I'm going out!" I called, closing the front door.

I hopped into the passenger seat of the two-people sports car and whooped. Alfred climbed into the other side and began to drive off.

.

I was excited but at the same time nervous. A large part of me couldn't wait. Alfred and me had brought the suit but he had suggested that we had a little talk. He had driven me to a café and brought up the subject of Diana almost instantly.

"So what attracted you to Miss Diana?"

"Well, when we first met, it was at that party, the masked ball. All the other people our age seemed to prim and proper but she was laid back and calm. She wasn't trying to impress anyone but that was probably what was most impressive about her."

"Yes, Miss Diana works on a principle that was built into her at birth. Other than the flips and the tricks, there's nothing separating her from the rest of the world. What we do defines us, not where we were born into otherwise Miss Diana would still be with the circus."

"And where would you be if you were going by what you were born into?" I asked as the waitress brought over our drinks.

I took a sip as Alfred smiled.

"I would still be the Wayne butler. The job was a first my father's and I lived in England with my mother. I took up acting and later spying until my father passed away and I saw it my duty to take his place."

"So you went from spying to being a butler. Don't you get bored?"

I was enjoying talking to Alfred. He was very welcoming and had a way of making every answer he gave me not seem like he was answering a stupid question.

"I work in the employ of a playboy millionaire philanthropist and his circus acrobat foster daughter – both of whom are constant targets for the criminals and ruffians of the city they choose to live. Life is anything but dull."

There was a pause and I took another sip from my drink.  
"Does Diana ever get homesick?" I asked. "Does she miss the circus?"

"The circus itself is still in Gotham, the tent is still in the Amusement Mile. She misses the people, yes, and the feeling of performing. It was worse when she was first orphaned. The night she was orphaned social services practically wrestled her into their car. Master Bruce took her in and gave her a home but the people from the circus will still be her family and she will probably always seem them as such."

I nodded slowly and tried to imagine what it would be like to lose everything that quickly. Yeah, when I had been twelve I had been taken away from my mother and abusive father and put into Uncle Barry's care but I had wanted that. I could barely imagine what it would be like to be dragged away from the place you had called home for your whole life with the promise that you would never again see the people you loved and cared about. It would be unbearable even without the fact that Diana had just been traumatised by the deaths of her parents.

"Bruce is a good man."

"Well, the same thing almost happened to him." Alfred said.

I gasped and saw Alfred look down. He seemed a bit nervous and upset about telling me the story. I guessed he had been close to Bruce's parents.

"After Bruce's mother and father had been killed in front of him, he was left the heir to Wayne Enterprises and also an orphan. I asked to become his legal guardian so he could stay at the manor but there was a man who worked for Thomas Wayne. The man's name was Mr James Earl. Mr Earl wasn't liked by Bruce's father but he was rich and had worked hard in the company, getting to the second most powerful man in Wayne Enterprises. He realised that he could get almost complete control over the company if Bruce entered his care so began a legal battle over the ten year old boy. Bruce was almost put into Earl's care but it soon turned out that Earl had destroyed a will by Thomas and Martha Wayne making me Bruce's legal guardian until he was old enough to care for himself. I took Bruce in."

"And now Diana sees you as a grandfather." I finished the story with a smile.

I had never thought that behind Bruce's playboy smile and happiness there would be such a horrible tale. I had known he had been orphaned as a boy but never that young and never with so many problems along the way.

"Oh, that makes me sound so old." Alfred said with a proud smirk.

"It wasn't meant to." I said. "I just... I just wanted to..."

"I understand, Master Wallace." Alfred replied. "Miss Diana used to stumble over her words when she was learning American. She still makes up words to make a point."

"I have a friend who does that." I said, thinking of Robin.

I smiled and sat back.

"So, have you ever met Batman?" I asked him.

Alfred smiled a knowing smile at me and began to tell me stories of when he had seen the dark knight, even if it was only for a second.

.

The day had come. It was the day of the school dance. I had rushed home and got changed into my suit, getting ready to go to the dance. I couldn't wait. I had taken the job of looking after Diana and the others had happily excepted me going with her. I would be the only one completely able to go to the party without seeming out of place.

I was waiting for Alfred to show up when my phone rang.

"Hey." I said.  
"Hey." Diana replied. "I haven't heard from you in three days!"

"I was busy buying a suit."

"That took you three days! I've missed you."

"You'll see me tonight. So how are you holding up. Those hero guys still hanging around?"

"Yeah. At the moment it's Superboy. I'm getting ready to leave and he's watching static. It's actually quite mesmerising."

I laughed and thought about the hours spent in the cave watching static with Superboy. It got a bit boring after a while but at first it was enjoyable.

"Better than the shopping channel at least." she pointed out.

There was a knock at the door and I said goodbye to Diana. I opened the to see Alfred standing there. He smiled at me and moved out of the way to reveal a limo.

"The party is waiting."

.

Gotham Academy is a massive school. It is also the only place for a millionaire to send their kids if they want top notch security and yet it is attacked frequently. I studied the security gates as I walked past them. There was guards in smart black suits on the doors and they had guns strapped to their sides.

"Miss Diana should be waiting inside." Alfred said, nodding his head towards the large building.

The building itself was very posh. It looked like a country house, not as grand as Wayne manor by a long shot, but still very posh. It had guards standing on the stone steps and the children of the rich and famous walking inside. I could only compare it to the masked ball I had met Diana at apart from there were no masks and everything was miniaturised. I saw Barbara walked across the playground from a police squad car. A couple of kids were making rude comments about her.

"Diana's inside. I just got a text from her. I'll go find her." she said.

"Great." I said.

As quickly as Barbara had appeared she was gone. I was standing in the playground a bit lost, not sure what to make of everything. Then a girl with short dark brown hair walked up to me. She smiled but also seemed to be studying me.

"You don't go to this school." she said.

"No, I don't." I replied. "My girlfriend does and Mr Wayne said it would be alright."

"So you're Diana's boyfriend."

"Yeah. Wally West."

I held out my hand and then realised that I never asked for handshakes I tried to make it seem causal as I pulled away.

"Alex." the girl said with a slight laugh. "Alex Black."

Alex began to walk towards the building and I followed her. We walked in silence for a few seconds and then reached the doors to the school.

"Diana's nice. I don't really speak to her, I'm more Barbara's friend. It's just 'cause Babs has been around longer, I suppose, and she's a scholarship kid too."

"Pardon?" I asked, trying to sound like I was meant to be there.

"To get into this school you either need to be bright or stinking rich. I'm the former. I got in for technology mostly apart from there is a bit of engineering in the mix as well. Barbara got in for Science and Maths. Diana's one of the stinking rich. She's the stinkiest."

We walked into the hall. The first thing that hit me was the music. It was incredibly loud and there was a famous DJ working on the decks in the corner of the room. Lights were flashing all around and there were tables of food and drinks lining the side. I'm pretty sure that some of that food was worth more than my laptop.

"But Diana's good at Maths, she's a Mathlete." I protested once I had regained control of my senses.

We walked over to a quieter part of the hall so we could actually talk without having to shout. There were only a few children over there.

"Yeah, she would have got in for Maths and Tech but being Bruce Wayne's daughter got her in for definite. There was quite a lot of prejudice against her when she first came, teachers saying she was thick because she couldn't speak the same language as the rest of us. Boy, did she prove them wrong. You don't need to speak the language to recognise Maths."

"So, Alex, have you got a date here tonight?"

"No way. Boys around here just aren't..."

"You're looking well." a voice behind me remarked, interrupting Alex.

I turned and gulped. I stared at the girl in front of me. She was pretty with long blonde hair and was dressed in a green dress. She had her eyes fixed on me with a mixture of smugness and hatred. Alex noticed my discomfort and asked why.

"Alex, this is my ex-girlfriend." I explained, pointing at Artemis.

_She knew I had a date here! What's she doing here? Is she trying to ruin this for me._

Artemis smiled at Alex as I went to introduce my knew found friend.

"I know who she is, Baywatch. We go to the same school. I'm just wondering why you're here?"

_Oh no, Artemis goes to Gotham Academy. Wait, shouldn't she go to Star City high like Roy? At least I know she's not purposely here to ruin my date with Diana._

"My girlfriend goes to your school." I informed her with a proud smirk.

"Oh and I fought my night couldn't get any worse. Here comes little miss suck up."

Me and Alex turned and saw Diana walking over. I winced as I turned back to Artemis.

"She's suck a freak I mean she showed up on my first day a took a picture of us together and... Why is she coming over?"

"Because she's my girlfriend." I answered back.

I might have snapped at her. I didn't care. She didn't know Diana and when they she had been a superhero she had been really nice to Diana, they had been bonding.

_Had this all come on after I started dating Diana? Normally I would have loved the idea of having any girl jealous about me being with another but Diana was a good person, Artemis had no reason to hate her!_

"You're dating that! Talk about down-grading!"

"She is a nice person."

"She spun a sob story and now the whole world likes her."

That was when Diana came over and squeeze my hand. I pulled Diana into a gentle hug and forgot about Artemis and Alex for a few seconds.

"I missed you."

"I missed you too." Diana said. "I was so bored."

When she pulled away, she looked at Alex and Artemis and greeted them with wide smiles. I thought for a second Artemis would stop there and possibly even wonder off but she didn't.

"Oh look who it is, my freaky stalker. Was he what you after when you stalked me, 'cause I assure you, you can have him!" Artemis said, pointing at me.

"Stalked you? What?" Diana asked.

I guessed that Artemis was referring to the photo Diana had taken of the two of them together. I decided that that would be another thing I would have to ask Diana about later.

"Yeah, stalked me! Seriously, not got any millionaires to suck up to?"

I could see Diana tensing. She probably heard this all too much. I looked at Artemis as if she was insane. Diana was having a really tough time and now Artemis wanted to get into some sort of argument over her choice of boyfriend. Alex seemed to be enjoying watching the scene.

"You probably won't want to date Wally for long; he hasn't got any money."

_For crying out loud, Artemis!_

Diana didn't reply. She looked at me and Alex and then back at Artemis. Me and Alex could tell something was about to kick off.

"Diana, lets go somewhere else." I tried. "Alex, can you go and find Barbara?"

"Okay, I'll..."

Artemis continued and I had nearly got Diana to leave when Artemis once again insulted Bruce.

"Artemis, shut up right now. We both know full well that you'd not be in this school if Bruce had not gotten you a scholar ship and since you are still on the Wayne scholar ship, you better be careful about what you say towards me or my dad."

With that Diana turned to leave. Me and Alex stood there shell shocked. Diana's voice had dropped to an almost deadly whisper. She was going when Artemis opened her stupid mouth once more.

"Only he's not your real dad. Your real parents went _splat_!"

Then everything fell silent. The music dropped out of my hearing as if it was no longer being played. I gasped. Artemis realised she had crossed the line. Alex made a tense 'ooo' sound after a few seconds. Diana clenched her fists. I tried to get Diana to leave but she wasn't going to. Not after what Artemis had said. Diana turned and walked straight up to Artemis. She grabbed Artemis by the shoulder's of her dress and force her against the wall of the hall. I could see tears in Diana's blue eyes.

"My parents were killed by a violent criminal." Diana said.

Then she lent forwards and whispered something into Artemis' ear.

Something that sounded a lot like: "Someone very much like your dad."

As a reaction, Artemis kneed Diana in the stomach. Diana fell back but brought Artemis crashing down with her. The two were soon rolling about at the floor, kicking, hitting and screaming at each other like children. I was about to intervene when Diana pulled herself free and stood up. For a moment, I believed that she was going to do the adult thing and walk away.

That was before she opened her mouth.

"How about we play a game? You do what your parents taught you and I'll do what my parents taught me and we'll see who wins this fight." Diana's tone was harsh but I could still see the tears in her eyes.

She was being cruel to Artemis because the comments she had made, the things she had implied about her and Bruce, had been much worse. A crowd began to from around the two girls, jeering and shouting, taking sides. I noted horribly that most of the students sided with Artemis. Every time Artemis made a lunge at Diana, she practically danced out of the way. The gymnastic moves Diana was making were not as glorious as she normally could but still beautiful. The crowd limited her movement greatly. I was horrified. Artemis was a fully trained fighter and Diana was only a gymnast. If Artemis had a bow with her then Diana would probably be injured by now.  
"Alex, go and get Barbara." I told Alex, not wanting to leave the fight.

Alex moaned and asked if she could keep watching. I kept my eyes focused on Diana and Artemis. Artemis wasn't going to let Diana get away with whatever comment she had made but, even when the archer managed to catch her, she showed little reaction to any sort of attack. When Diana landed right in front of me, she winked but I could still see the tears in her blue eyes. It reminded me what had started the fight, about the comment that made it. I glared at Artemis.  
"I'm going to try and separate them. If I get my way there won't be much of a fight to witness."

I looked at Alex and watch as she disappeared into the crowd. I walked out into the fight.

"STOP!" I cried. "Both of you stop this right now!"

"You're girlfriend's a brat!" Artemis screamed.

"You're ex is an idiot!" Diana snapped.

Suddenly Barbara ran into the centre of the ring. She saw Diana and Artemis.

"You two..." Barbara began. "You two need to get out of here before the teachers get here."

Artemis looked at Barbara and then hurried off. I glared after her. Diana walked over to Barbara and looked her straight in the eyes.

"She talked about my parents going..." Diana whimpered.

"Diana, get out of here. We'll explain what happened. Go to our Maths room." Barbara said soothingly.

I walked up to Diana and hugged her close. I ran my hands through her black hair and smiled.

"I am so sorry about Artemis. It wasn't your fault. She crossed the line." I whispered into her ear. "I'll sort this out. We'll deal with this."

.

Mr James was the teacher who herded me, Barbara and Alex into a large office.

"Who's Mr James?" I asked as he paced the room.

"He's the deputy head." Barbara whispered. "He'll probably put us all into detention."

"I don't even go to this school!" I pointed out.

"He'll still give you a detention." Alex smirked.

Mr James sat at his desk and looked at the three of us.

"Now these are three people I never thought I would see in my office: Gordon, Black and..."

"West. Wallace West. I don't go to your school." I smirked.

"Interesting, Master West. Now which one of you three started the fight? Or was it little Miss Grayson, the more common offender out of the 'G and G' team?"

"You have no evidence that Diana was there." Barbara snapped.

"But she was, wasn't she? I've got eye witnesses saying that Diana aimed the first blow."

"Artemis kneed her in the stomach first!" Alex protested.

"From what I've been told, Grayson had Crock pressed against a wall."

"Artemis made fun of Diana's roots. More specifically her parents. With the man who murdered her parents out of prison. I feel that Diana has a right to be touchy in that area." I pointed out with a glare at the man.

Mr James stood up and looked me right in the eyes. He couldn't manage a Bat-glare, he wasn't frightening enough. He couldn't threaten me.

"Your friend has just assaulted another pupil."

"My _girlfriend_ was attempting to defend her heritage after it was insulted." I spat. "Now I know you might not think that it was that because Artemis is my ex but Diana is a good kid and..."

"Your girlfriend has over forty counts of truancy, over fifty detentions for sleeping in class and is often in here with her father for fights or bullying incidents."

"Fights that Diana never started and it wasn't her doing the bullying was it! If you kept a better eye on some of the pupils here then maybe Diana wouldn't have need to fight back to defend herself!" Barbara roared.

It was clear she had been in a discussion like this too many times. She turned away from Mr James as if she didn't even care about what he had to say.

"Alex, Wally, I'm going to call Bruce." Barbara said

"Miss Gordon if you leave this room, I'll..."

Barbara was already gone. Mr James turned to me and Alex.

"Black, you have detention. Go and find Gordon and Grayson. Get them back here."

I turned to Alex and telepathically told her to not go and find the two innocent girls. When Alex left, I could tell that she was going to see Artemis about what was happening. I vowed to myself I would also go and deal with Artemis later.

Mr James turned to me and glared.

"Master West, I'm going to take down your details and call your parents. Tell me them."

"Or what? You'll give Diana detention? Tute can hair a covva ferridearer if you jāl shukár."

I remembered that from what Diana had said when we had been in the park three days ago. I couldn't remember what it meant but it served it's purpose.

"Go and wash your mouth out!" Mr James ordered.

_Just as I thought, racist against Romanis._ I thought with a fire of fury. _Guess which billionaire is going to be made aware of this._

I walked towards the door and Mr James fumed behind me.

"Where on Earth are you going, boy?"

"To wash my mouth out!" I shouted back and stormed off to find Diana.

.

I was angry. I watched as Barbara was on the phone to Bruce, telling him what happened. It was horrible to think of the way the millionaire was reacting. Barbara didn't know everything but she didn't need to. She just needed to know about her friend. I watched as Alex walked over to a teenaged girl who was kicking the wall outside of school. I recognised her as Artemis and stormed over.

"What was that?" I demanded.

"What was what?" Artemis asked.

"Diana is a great girl. She's..."

"Wally, she's a spoilt brat who doesn't deserve you. For crying out loud, what do you even know about her. There is something wrong about her." Artemis said, looking up.

She had tears in her eyes and was frowning.

"I still care about you." she whimpered.

"If you cared about me you would respect my decisions." I looked at Alex. "Don't tell Mr James were she is. Send her home."

"What? She tried to beat up your girlfriend. She should feel James' fury!"

"She's my ex. I had feelings for her... Once. I'm giving her a chance to do the right thing." I said, looking down at Artemis with a mixture of shame and pity.

Then I turned to walk away, following Barbara so I could find Diana. I needed to see her and be with her. She would be the only thing that could help me.

.

I watched as Barbara walked slowly into the room Diana was in and zipped over, hoping I could help. I didn't go inside. I waited by the door and listened.

"What was that?" Barbara demanded of her friend.

"Artemis insulted my parents." Diana answered simply. "I got into a fight. It's not like it's anything knew. Why are you so annoyed?"

"You know full well why I'm annoyed! Artemis is my friend, for a start, and you pretty much just insulted her very existence! And..."

"She is, or was, trying to ruin the possibly one stable thing in my life."

"Stable!" Barbara screeched. "I do not see your relationship with that boy as even healthy! You know that even the mention of Zucco pretty much fries your emotions and down you're dating a boy who you would never have even considered dating. Diana, he really cares about you. What would _they _think if they knew you were stringing him along like this?"

I knew she meant Diana's parents when Barbara had said '_they_'. It was a horrible truth. They both fell into silence and I took a few seconds to mull everything I had heard over. Clearly Diana was lying to me but a large part of me didn't care. We could sort out the lies after Zucco was dealt with, no matter how curious I was.

"Barbara, I think that, with everything I do, I've really given up on what my parents would think of me." Diana said. "But, if you want to know what I believe they would think, here goes. They would think I'm messing up, they would want me to get checked out because there's a large possibility that I should be in Arkham right now. But they would also see what you clearly don't. I would die for that boy. I just couldn't bare losing someone else. Especially not now. I know I should tell him but this moment, with..."

Diana trailed off as if she could barely say the word.

"Zucco running around, I'm trying to draw a line in the sand of the people I know I can protect and the people I can't. So I may get into fights right now because you know full well that I'm pushing the some people I care about away as I know I can't protect them."

"Then this...?" Barbara trailed off. "This fight?"

"Practically everyone in Gotham knows we're best friends and..."

There was a silence and I pushed the door open. Barbara had a tear trickling down her cheek and was standing near the door. Diana was sitting down, looking utterly defeated. Barbara turned to look at me and took me by the wrist, leading me into the centre of the room.  
"I know for six years you've been learning tricks and lies but, Diana, can you be honest to me right now? Tell me that you want to be in a relationship with this boy."

"Barbara, Wally West means more than any boy has ever meant to me."

"Wally, tell Diana what you are willing to trust her with." Barbara instructed.

I slowly opened my mouth and then closed it, trying to find the right words.  
"My life and everything in it." I answered.

A tear rolled down Diana's cheek and I could tell she knew what was coming next.

"Diana, tell Wally what you are willing to trust him with." Barbara instructed.

Diana looked down and then told Barbara that she already knew the answer.

"I didn't ask you to tell me." Barbara replied.

Diana looked up at me. She got up and looked me straight in my green eyes.

"Nothing." Diana said and then brushed past me and walked away.

I stood there shell-shocked. Diana was gone. She was walking away because she didn't trust me, because her friend, her best friend, had just picked apart our relationship one bit at a time and told Diana the fatal flaw it had.

"Have you got what you what?" I roared at Barbara as I turned to leave.

"Wally, you will have hated me even more if I had let you two continue." Barbara murmured.

I didn't reply. I didn't even look at her. I just walked away.


	16. Fighting

**Hi. I know it's been a long time (or it just feels like it for me) but I have an excuse. I've been making the most of a sudden heat wave! **

**I don't own Young Justice.**

* * *

I stormed down the street. Artemis had been right. There was something wrong about Diana. She was going to hurt herself and the people around her. She clearly cared about her friends and was a great friend but it took trust to have friends. Diana clearly didn't trust anyone apart from maybe Bruce and Alfred. It was horrible to think that I had loved her when we had no future together. Then my communicator went off. At first I didn't want to answer it but I felt like I needed to. I decided I needed to take some of my anger out on guys who deserved it – namely Zucco.

"Here." I answered.

"Where are you?" Kaldur demanded. "It's time for us to deal with Zucco."

I glanced at my watch and nodded to myself.

"I'm coming." I said and zipped off to get changed.

.

We all met up in the warehouse that Zucco was due to meet the gang at. It was half ten, giving us half an hour until Zucco showed up. I was angry. I refused to talk to the others. Especially Artemis when she walked in. Kaldur turned to Artemis and asked her what was up with me.

"I don't know." she answered back.

I don't know why I was angry at Artemis. I guessed that it was because she had known about it beforehand, that she had triggered the fight which had ultimately destroyed me and Diana's relationship.

Then Robin and Batgirl walked in. I would see something was wrong with them. They weren't walking side to side like normally. Robin was trailing behind, looking grumpy and sad. They are also walking in silence. I zipped over to Robin. I wanted to know what had made him so upset.  
"What's wrong?" I asked, trying to hide how upset I was.

"Another argument." Robin murmured, glaring at Batgirl out of the corner of his masked eyes.

Batgirl walked over to Artemis and began to talk to her about the fight.

"Did you hear about me and Diana?"

"Unfortunately, yes. I'm a bat. I know everything."

Normally, when Robin said something like that, he smiled. That time he didn't. He was staring straight at me.

"Are you okay?" he inquired.

"I'll manage." I said.

"Why is Artemis giving us a glare?" Robin asked, not even having to look at the archer to tell what was happening.

"She causes the fight that made me and my girlfriend break up. She also revealed she still has feelings for me." I grumbled. "I know that Diana is weird. She has no right not to trust me. I've been there for her this whole time and now..."

Robin looked at me as anger pitched in my voice. He glared at me.

"Now I don't know what to do with myself." I said. "I'm beginning to think that some things, some people, are not worth it, not worth the lack of trust."

"Not worth the lack of trust?" Robin snapped. "Like me!"

"What?" I exclaimed.

I had not been aiming at insulting Robin. I didn't know lots about him but he was my best friend. I knew he felt uncomfortable about his inability to to tell people his identity, about how it was not allowed. There was a large part of Robin that made him believe I thought he didn't trust me. Deep down, I knew Robin trusted me with his life. He trusted every part of me. Diana didn't even trust the part without a mask.

Robin began to storm off. I turned to Batgirl and then to Speedy.

"Can you go and have a word with him?" I asked.

Kaldur ordered Robin back before the boy left the room. He called me, Batgirl, Robin and Artemis over.

"I don't care what has happened between you four. I don't even want to know. All that matters is that we are here to arrest Zucco and protect Diana Grayson from the man who would murder her." Kaldur said.

"Maybe we should arrest the girl as well." Artemis muttered, looking at Kaldur.

I growled and went at her. Robin grabbed my arm and kicked me in the balls. I doubled over and lay on the floor, feeling intense pain in me area Robin's foot had made contact. Batgirl pulled him off me as he went to punch me in the jaw.

"We do not have time to fight between ourselves!" Robin shouted, shoving Batgirl off me.

"No, little bird, you do not." a voice shouted.

I recognised the voice. We all turned and looked around. Robin growled and looked around.

"Zucco!" Batgirl demanded.

"You're all here." he said with a smile. "Oh this should be fun."

His men walked in and surrounded them all. Each of the men had a gun.

"How did you know?" Kaldur asked.

"I could hear you from a mile away." Zucco said. "Now, since you're here..."

I used Zucco's speech to get up.

"I just want one thing in return for your freedom."

"And what is that one thing?" I asked in an angry tone.

Zucco walked forwards and produced a gun. He stroked the gun's nuzzle against the cheek of the person he wanted.

I could never understand how Robin could have a gun so close to him and not react. He clearly wasn't frozen with fear. It was hard to work you anything about the teenager and his emotions towards the gun and the criminal. If it had been me, however, I would have knocked the gun away, whether it caused my death or not.

"Hand over the Boy Wonder and I'll go on my way."

"No!" Batgirl shouted, moving between Zucco and Robin.

Robin looked furious at the idea that Batgirl was now attempting to fight his battles. He didn't however move forwards to get back into Zucco's power.

"Okay." Zucco sneered, turning to his men. "Kill them all, expect Robin. Shoot him in the knees."

The men turned and pointed their guns at us. Zucco turned and began to walk away.

"Bring me Robin kicking and screaming." Zucco said and then added with glee dripping from his voice. "Well, maybe not kicking."

"Kid Flash, Artemis, get after Zucco!" Kaldur ordered. "The rest of you, protect Robin!"

The team formed a circle around Robin who clearly wasn't very happy about it. I looked at Artemis, expecting her and me to come up with some sort of plan. Instead she raced off after Zucco who climbed into a van and began to drive off.

I gave chase.

.

It wasn't hard to me to catch up with the van. I managed it in seconds. It was hard for me to find a way of latching on. Normally I would have waited for Artemis to fire an arrow I could use but team work certainly wasn't going to work between us that day. We weren't even talking.

"Give it up, Zucco." I called, mentally scanning the rooftops for Artemis.

_She's not even here. No wonder, she'll probably be too busy getting into fights with any girl I make eye contact with._ I thought, my hand latching onto the door handle. I swung up onto the roof, thankful Robin had given me some training in gymnastics.

I landed on the roof of the van and smiled, moving towards the front of van. Wind whipped past me and my hair danced around me. Suddenly I saw Artemis. She pulled out her bow and aimed it at the van. Normally we would have done a trick that would allow us to get Zucco and get complete control of the van. However we were not working together and had no intention of doing so. Artemis fired her arrow and it hit into the front of the van, reach where I was standing. I recognised the explosive arrow in a second and jumped off the roof or the van. The arrow exploded and I was thrown over. I felt a sudden pain in my arm but guessed it was only a gaze. I zoomed back, just in time to watch Artemis leap after the van as it veered off.

We both ran forwards and I ran past Artemis. There was a slight possibility that I tripped her over as I ran past because she had knocked me down with her arrow. I raced past, just to see Zucco begin to climb up the fire escape. I raced forwards but wasn't quick enough. Zucco pulled up the ladder and, in the alleyway we were in, I couldn't get the speed to run up the wall and get him. If I hadn't tripped Artemis up, she would have been able to catch him. She wasn't there because of me. Zucco smiled as he looked down at me.

"Tell Robin that I can't wait to see him." Zucco taunted and disappeared across the rooftop.

Artemis got up and walked up to me. She slammed me against the wall.

"What on Earth was that?" she demanded. "You have done some pretty stupid things, Baywatch, but that..."

"You wrecked my..."

"Don't." Artemis said, storming away. "Don't you dare."

.

We returned to the warehouse. Me and Artemis watched as the rest of our group finished trying up the criminals. We hadn't talked on the way back and Kaldur could tell something had gone wrong before he even walked over.

"What happened? Where's Zucco?"

"He got away." Artemis grumbled.

Robin heard it. He was silently treating a flesh wound on Batgirl's arm. As soon as he heard Zucco had escaped, he turned and glared at me and Artemis.

"Why did you let him escape?" Robin inquired with a growl.

"We didn't do it on purpose." I told Robin, trying to stay calm.

Robin turned away from me.

"I'm going back to the Bat-cave. Batman was expecting Zucco to be in Blackgate by now." Robin said and walked off.

As he left the warehouse, he let out a barely human growl and kicked over a few boxes set up in the corner. I winced at the sound and the rest did as well. Batgirl looked at me and then at Artemis. Kaldur walked over to Batgirl and told her that she might need to go after Robin, simply because Zucco was after him.

"Lets get back and check on Diana Grayson." Kaldur said.

"I think I'll pass." I said. "I don't think I can face her."

Kaldur nodded slowly and turned to Artemis.  
"You can have the night off too." he said and then turned away.

.

Days had passed since Zucco escaped us. I had been avoiding the others and Diana Grayson. Roy had called me up about her and how she was. I hadn't bothered listening. Robin hadn't made contact with me either. That was strange but we had had no meetings to say he was missing so I just assumed that he was avoiding me and the others. Artemis had texted me to apologise and I was yet to text back, unsure of what to said.

One the Saturday in question, I was at home alone, moping around like I had done since me and Diana had broken up. Then I heard my phone ring. I reached for it. I didn't believe it when I saw the number. It was Diana. At first I thought about throwing it away and giving up but I found myself answering it.

"What is it?" I growled.

"Wally, are you busy?" Diana murmured.

I instantly realised she had been crying. A large part of me felt heartbroken at the idea so I listened more intently, hoping that everything was alright.

"No, I'm free, I'm... What's wrong?"

"I'm at Gotham Cemetery and I... I need someone. Me and Barbara aren't talking, we haven't since... And Bruce is busy and I need a friend and..."

"And I'm the only one you can call." I found myself snapping.

I guessed I was just annoyed that I was still at the bottom of Diana's list of priorities.

"You're the only one I want to call." Diana said.

I thought it was going to be painful, that if I went there it would be a big mistake. I kinda knew deep down that something bad was going to happen if I returned to Diana but I'm Kid Flash. I'm a super hero. Dealing with pain and mistakes and bad things was what I did.

* * *

**Beware the next chapter! It involves kissing! *yucky***


	17. Back together

**I don't own Young Justice. If I did I would be making another cartoon, not watching bad TV shows on telly.**

I looked around the graveyard that Diana had asked to meet at. I had not let anything stop me in my journey there; Diana needed me more than anyone else. I had used my super speed to get there. Graveyards are strange places, no matter what time in the year it is, they are cold and lonely. I hate them and I wondered why Diana would want to meet in one. I began to stroll around, searching for Diana, my ex-girlfriend. Then I saw her, kneeling in front of two graves. The two graves were grand, side by side for eternity. Diana was sprinkling something over the graves. Slowly I walked up to her. She didn't jump when I came up behind her.

"You don't have to come any closer if you don't want to. Some people don't like the idea of walking over..."

"Will you be coming back?" I asked.

Diana shook her head just enough so I could see tears rolling down her cheeks. I walked over and knelt beside her.

"Then I'll come to you." I whispered.

"Today was her birthday." Diana murmured, her lips quivering.

I slipped myself out of my jacket the moment I saw how cold she was. I placed it over her shoulders and then swept her hair out from underneath it. At first she flinched away from my touch, clearly finding it uncomfortable but soon accepted that I wasn't going to let her freeze to death, even after we had broken up.

"Every year, Dad would come into my room and get me up at the crack of dawn. We would make her two slices of toast with an egg just the way she liked it and a cup of tea with two heaped teaspoons of sugar. She only... They never slept in on her birthday apart from this one time. I was eight and Dad didn't get me up. I made her breakfast all by myself and she kissed my cheek and told me I was her little genius. That was the last birthday she ever had..."

I knew what was coming so I stopped her. I let her shift round and pull into me, resting her tear stained cheek on my shoulder.

"They would be so proud of you." I whispered into her ear. "You're beautiful, clever, one of the best gymnasts America's ever had the pride to have and you've got a brilliant friends."

That got a laugh. A small one, but her body shook from it. She nuzzled into my shoulder, feeling my warmth. It was so natural but it also seemed strange. This was something that a boyfriend and girlfriend did. We had just broken up, we were at a tipping point between making it a clean break up or completely ruining our friendship completely.

"They would have really liked you." Diana whispered.

I helped Diana slowly to her feet and looked at the bag she was holding.

"Robin food?" I read aloud.

Diana put a cupped hand into the bag and then scooped some onto the graves.

"My mother loved robins. She nicknamed me her little robin. I kinda... It's a birthday present." she managed.

"It's a wonderful present." I told her, scooping some out and letting it fall onto the graves.

Diana's blue eyes soon settled onto the graves once again and I saw a fresh tear swell up from inside them. She pressed two fingers to her lips and then kissed them. Then she knelt down and pressed her two fingers against the ground. She did it again, once for each parent.

"Do you want me to go?" I asked, as Diana stood back up and stared silently at the graves.

"No." Diana said, suddenly, begging me to stay with those blue eyes of hers. "Take the bag and go down to the bench about a hundred metres that way."

"Okay." I said and began to slowly walk away.

Diana knelt down by the graves again, this time a determined stance in the way she knelt.

"I promise you, like I promised you six years ago that Zucco will be brought to justice..." Diana told the graves.

.

Diana came over and sat next to me. About half an hour had past but I had stayed. I didn't know why but I had. Diana smiled weakly at me but it was awkward. The last time we had seen each other, we had broken up.

"Thanks." Diana said.

"It's okay." I replied. "Everyone needs a shoulder to cry on, once in a while."

Then a silence descended over us. We both knew that we needed to talk about where our fight had left us but neither of us wanted to. I was about to do the brave thing when Diana began.

"I have trust issues." Diana blurted out.

I looked at her and frowned.

"No kidding." I said.

"No, I have really serious trust issues." she said sadly, her head falling onto her shoulder.

There was another silence and after a few seconds, I felt a hand in mine. I looked down and saw Diana's small, soft, perfect hand trying to trick mine into holding it.

"Do you think it's possible to love someone and not trust them?" Diana asked.

"I think that if you love someone enough, you can learn to trust them." I murmured.

"Do you think I could ever... Learn to trust you?"

"I hope you could." I said. "Does that mean we're...?"

"We're working on it." Diana said.

I put my arm around her and then noticed a tear rolling down her eye.

"Wally, you know I said I had trust issues."

"Yeah."

"Well, I'm going to tell you something and you have to keep it a secret, between the two of us, and the two of us only." Diana said.

"Okay."

"I'm going to ask the heroes protecting me to use me as bait to catch Zucco."

"What?" I gasped.

I looked straight at Diana and stood up.

"You can't!"

Diana stood up and looked me straight in the eyes.

"Give me one good reason why I can't."

She said it so calmly. So horribly calmly. It was her life we were talking about, her safety. She couldn't put it on the line, not even to get him back in jail.

"Because I love you! Diana, you could die. I won't let you. I'll..."

I suddenly couldn't talk any more. It might have been the fact that I had just told Diana that I loved her for the first time or maybe it was because something was pressing against my lips. I looked outwards and realised with lovely horror that Diana was kissing me. She had her eyes closed and, after a few seconds, I closed mine. I wrapped my arms around her as we stood there, kissing.

When Diana pulled away, I was breathless, shocked into silence and smiling.

"Now that's shut you up, let me actually explain my reasoning." Diana said. "Zucco could be out there planning mass murder and I could draw him out. Even if I do die in the process of him getting arrested, a thousand lives could be saved."

"I love you." I murmured.

I had barley listened to what she had said. All I could think about was the feeling of her lips on mine. I had never realised that they would be so soft. I just wanted to kiss her again.

"Why do you have to be so brave?" I muttered as I pulled her into a kiss.

It was just as explosive as the first. I wrapped my arms around her and could feel her heart beating through my chest. I wanted to freeze time like that forever.

We kissed and when she pulled back, still resting in my arms, I realised she was blushing. She realised it too and turned away.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Nothing, it's just..." Diana paused, shyly. "You're my first kiss."

I felt a bit guilty about that. My first kiss had been Artemis. Robin had arranged it, every detail and it had been perfect, the place, the timing, everything. My kiss (kisses) with Diana, those had been something more. They were perfect and spontaneous and it showed how much Diana knew about me, not how much Robin had told Artemis about me.

"So..." I trailed off. "Marks out of ten?"

"Eleven." Diana said and leant forwards one last time.

Her lips never reached mine. A cough rang out over the graveyard and we both turned. Bruce was standing there.

"I thought you might be here." Bruce said.

"Yeah um..." I said, letting my hands drop from around Diana.

"Hi." Diana managed. "How long have you been there?"

Bruce smiled and walked over to Diana.

"I'm taking Wally's side on the bait thing."

"Of course you would." Diana moaned. "But if it was Chill..."

"Just because I'm taking Wally's side doesn't mean I'll stop you." Bruce said.

"Thank you!" Diana cried, pulling me and Bruce into a hug.

Me and Bruce were both awkward at the idea of being forced into a hug together but we both hugged Diana, if not each other.

"So, before you go and get yourself killed, what do you two love birds want to do?" Bruce asked.

.

I had suggested it. It was romantic but didn't seem like I was trying too hard. Bruce had driven us there and, when we got out at the beach, smiled at us.

"I'm going to lay down some rules." Bruce said with a smile before we got out of the convertible he had driven us there in. "You two are not allowed more than two hundred metres away from me, you two talk to no one but each other and me, if you go swimming I have to be told beforehand and the moment, the very moment, that someone takes anything that could even resemble an unhealthy interest in you, I am told and you two as taken straight home with no moaning or groaning."

Diana got out of the car and Bruce told her to go on ahead. Then he turned back to me.

"Because it is clear you care about her as much as I do, I'm guessing you'll make sure she does as I say."

.

The beach wasn't that busy and me and Diana skipped across the sand, hand in hand. Diana pulled me onto a rock as she sat down. She had her feet in the water and a smile on her lips.

"When I was a kid, my parents used to um..."

"You don't have to tell me stuff like this. If you feel it's a way of showing that you trust me, I... I don't see it as that." I said.

"Then..."

"You want me to tell you about myself?"

"About your parents. You live with your uncle, right?"

"Yeah."

"So...?"

I told her. I told her about my father beating me and my mother being too scared to do anything about it. I told her about the fact I ran away from home and found my uncle and aunt. I told them about what happened and my uncle refused to let me return until my father had been dealt with. He was currently in prison, had been for years. Even if he had been out, I wouldn't have wanted to see him. I didn't tell her how I was Kid Flash, how that had played a small part in what had happened, I didn't see the point.

"That's... I'm sorry."

"Don't be. It's not like you could have done anything to stop it. It's not like you even knew me back then."

"It doesn't mean I can't feel sorry for you."

"Says the girl who's going to ask a group of superheroes to use her as bait so they can catch the guy who murdered her parents." I said and then stopped and looked at Diana.

"You say that like it's a bad thing." she whispered but I could tell that it was taking a lot out of her.

She swirled the rising tide around with her bare feet and looked up at me. I knew that I had to change the subject.

"So, that Joan of Arc stuff, have you got any more information on that?"  
"Just some stuff, Babs was helping me but..."

Diana looked around awkwardly and then her gaze settled on something. A smile crossed her lips.

"Is that a cave?" she asked. "Race ya!"

And then she was off like a shot. I took a few seconds to watch her go, a smile returning to my face. Boy, was I lucky to be dating Diana Grayson.


	18. The plan

**I don't own Young Justice. I really wish I did. **

**If I did, I would have the heroes visit my little sister so she doesn't become a Marvel fan.**

* * *

I let Diana win. I didn't use my powers. I did make it close but I let her win.

"Ha!" Diana laughed as she slowed so she could enter the cave without fear of cutting her feet.

I moved closer, feeling the damp, cold stones under my feet. I smiled, watching as Diana spun, admiring the cave with her arms out wide.

"I've got a thing for caves." Diana said. "They're wonderful."

I had only been in one other cave: the Batcave. I had been blindfolded on the journey to and from. Robin had showed me round, explaining as much as he could about each of the trophies. The Batcave was amazing but this cave, on a beach with the girl of my dreams, it was more than amazing.

"Obvious, since you're a Batman fan." I muttered, keeping it low.

Diana heard me however.

"Yeah. I've heard the Batcave is great." Diana said, studying the ceiling.

I let everything fall silent as I looked around, trying to work out how to phrase it. I had so many questions about why we broke up, what we could do to strengthen our relationship but neither of us wanted to ask.

"Earlier, you said you loved me." I said.

"Yes, I did." Diana said with a click of the tongue.

She didn't look at me, her eyes were set on the ceiling. I realised she was trying to spot bats.

"Did you mean it?"

"Yes. I'm just not very good at this."

"Well, I couldn't tell." I said with a wide grin. "In fact, I'm not very good at things like this. I've often been called cheesy."

"You cheesy?" Diana gasped sarcastically. "I would never have had thought it."

I shifted slowly closer to Diana.

"You've never experienced my cheesiness, have you? No. Because the day we met, we hit it off. No need for cheese. It's a pity they're my speciality."

"Lets have a cheesy-off then." Diana said. "Whoever can think of the cheesiest chat up line wins."

"Do they miss you in heaven?" I asked as smoothly as I could.

"Not as much as they miss you. Is your fiery hair what makes you so hot or it is something else?"

"If I could rearrange the alphabet, I would put 'I' and 'U' together."

"Can I take your picture? I need it so I can show Bruce what I want as a present." Diana laughed.

"Are you made of copper and tellurium? Because you're CuTe."

"A science chat up line already?" Diana said. "Okay, lets see if you can handle maths. I'm good at algebra, I can replace your X and you don't even need to figure out Y."

"Okay, that was bad." I sniggered.

We both laughed. I put my arm around Diana and we hugged, laughing into the chest of the other one. For a few moments, we were completely careless. However we did have cares and sooner or later we were going to have to face them.

"When we get back, We'll explain the plan to the heroes. Then I'm going to call Barbara and see if she's willing to talk to me." Diana said.

"This plan of yours, I have one change. We do it together."

At first my girlfriend looked horrified. Then she moved closer and kissed my lips.

"I would like that."

.

Diana and me had only told our plan to Kaldur. He had said he needed to discuss it with the team and Diana had gone off to call Barbara I hoped it had ended well. It was now rather late. Diana had come down to inform us all that she was going to bed but I was already in costume and she barley acknowledged me. I was sitting on the sofa, listening as M'gann talked about a date she and Superboy had gone on. Robin and Batgirl walked in. They still seemed tense but they didn't seem on the verge of a fight. Robin smiled when he saw me and came over to sit next to me.

"How is our Romeo?" he asked. "I heard you and Diana got back together."

We bro-fisted and Artemis glared. Robin did the most mature thing possible and stuck his tongue out at her. The rest of the group inquired about how we had got back together and I had told them it all – well as much as I believed that Diana would want them to know. Batgirl walked over.

"Hey, KF." she said with a smile.

"So what are we discussing?" Robin asked.

Kaldur explained. When he mentioned my name, nearly everyone turned to me. There was however one set of eyes that I was sure were set on Robin. I was sure that Batgirl was trying to work out what Robin was thinking as he looked at me with a proud but childish smirk.

"We need to decide whether we're going to let them go through with it."

"Should we just take a vote?" I asked.

"Unless anyone has anything else to say on the matter." Kaldur said, scanning the faces of the group to see if anyone did.

No one had anything else to say so we began to vote. Me and Robin both raised our hands instantly when Kaldur asked who wanted the plan to go ahead. Speedy followed our example seconds later. M'gann was more hesitant as she raised her hand but she did with a smile on her face. Superboy looked at me and nodded, raising his hand. When kaldur asked who didn't agree, Batgirl raised her hands. Her eyes were set on Robin and she looked rather concerned. Artemis also raised her hand.

"How will we even be sure that Zucco will come?"

"We'll work on it." I promised them all.

We had that night and the next day to work on it. If all else failed we would just get the Bat family to thread a message about the location we wanted them to find Diana at.

"Well it seems that the plan is going ahead." Kaldur said. "We should get down to planning it."

.

I wanted to work with Robin but Kaldur wanted him to help find a location in Gotham that we could all work at. I was partnered with Batgirl. I got along with Batgirl but I never really spent time with her without Robin.

"You and Robin are best friends, right?" Batgirl said.

"Yeah. The closest." I said. "We don't always tell each other everything but... We're there for each other, no matter what happens."

"Even if Robin and Diana..."

"Were a couple?"

It was the only possible thing that Batgirl could be implying. I very much doubted it. Robin and Diana seemed too alike to be a couple.

"Batgirl, I think Rob would have told me."

"There's a lot he doesn't tell you, KF. Robin's being threatened." Batgirl said, taking a seat. "He keeps getting notes from Zucco but he won't tell anyone. I only found out because he asked me to keep this safe and it alerted me to something being wrong."

Batgirl produced a chain with a gold ring on it. She held it in the air and let the ring hand. The ring was plain but clearly well worn. It had scratches on it but was perfectly polished. The chain was more modern. It was a golden colour and had a complex clasp on it. it was something I had never seen before and I guessed it was some sort of expensive technology only a League member could get their hands on. The ring and it's chain we're hypnotic as they hung in the air and swung gently from side to side.

"What is it?" I breathed.

"Robin's dad's wedding ring. Robin's an orphan and the ring didn't fit his dad when he died. Robin was given it to keep it safe. After the deaths he put it on a chain. The chain was designed by Batman. Only he and Robin know ow to undo it. It's to make sure no one steals it from Robin. It's his most prized possession. He nearly always has it on him unless he's going up against someone really dangerous. That's why I got really worried when he asked me to look after it."

"What should I do?" I asked.

Robin was pretty much family. If he was in danger, I wanted him to tell me. I didn't care how swamped I was with my girlfriend. I always had time for my brother.

"Ask him about it. He'll take it better if it comes from you. Say Zucco made a comment about threats or something."

.

I found Robin sitting in the kitchen of Wayne manor. He was sitting on the kitchen counter. He had clearly managed to escape the planning meetings that were happening and was probably hiding out.

"What are you up to?" I asked.

Robin smiled and nodded towards on of the cupboards.

"The butler... What's his name?"

"Alfred." I said.

"Yeah, Alfred, he told me that someone was nicking stuff from the cupboards. I've booby-trapped it to find out who it is. What's up?"

"Ceiling." I answered with a proud smirk.

"Okay, clever clogs, why are you here?"

"I came to talk to you." I said, climbing onto the table.

Out of me, Speedy and Robin, Robin was the youngest. It was down to me and Speedy to protect him but Speedy was getting distance from the team as he tried to work on not being a partner to Green Arrow. It fell to me to be the big brother. It was hard since Robin didn't always trust me with stuff.

"I've come to talk to you about Zucco."

Robin grimaced at the mention of his name but he continued to listen.

"He said something about threatening you when me and Artemis were chasing after him and..."

"You want to see if he was lying?"

I nodded slowly as Robin let his face fall.

"I can handle it." he assured me in a grave tone.

"I'm sure you can but that doesn't mean you should." I told him. "Has he been sending you letters, pictures, anything?"

"Letters and pictures." Robin answered.

"Show me them." I said.

.

We zetaed to Mount Justice. Robin was silently most of the way but I talked to him. I told him about every juicy detail about me and Diana dating. I also told him about our cheesy chat-up line competition.

When we reached the mountain, Robin lead me down the corridors, away from the living quarters.

"I want to take off my masked." Robin said, slipping out of his cape and laying it over his arm.

I nodded and sipped off to find his sunglasses. I came back holding them and gave them to Robin with a smile. He looked at me.

"Can you look away?" he asked.

I nodded and turned my back, letting Robin take off his mask and slip on his sunglasses without having to worry about me working out who he was. When I looked back, Robin was wearing a set of sunglasses and had a weak smile on his lips.  
"We need to meet up together again." I said as we continued to walk.

"Do you have time for me while you're dating Diana?" Robin asked.

I frowned. Diana was my girlfriend but Robin was still my best friend. I would never let Diana's presence get between me and Robin.

"We should do a double date. I'm sure she'll love to meet you. She is a Batman fan after all."

"Who would I go with?" Robin scoffed.

"Batgirl." I smirked, putting my arm around him.

"No thanks, me and Batgirl aren't going out."

"But you could still meet Diana!"

I was really excited. Robin and Diana would hit it off. Even if Diana didn't know Robin was Robin, the boy wonder, she would still be excited.

"Wally, I can't meet Diana!" Robin protested. "I go to her school. She might recognise me."

"Oh, sorry." I said.

Then Robin stopped in front of a door. He turned the handle and looked at me with a weak smile.

"What is this room?"

"It's a spare lounge. It was built in case something happened to the Leaguers which means they have to be separated. It's a fight lounge in a way."

I walked inside and looked around. The room was full of papers. They littered the rooms. Robin walked over and grabbed a few of the papers, handing them to me.

"He's been sending them to Gordon addressed to me. I haven't told Batman."

"What do they say?" I asked, studying some pictures of Robin throughout his six year career in crime fighting.

The pictures each had drawings in red pen, drawing fire coming up from the bottom. Some even had burns along the bottom. It was quite eerie. It sent shivers down my spine at the at idea that someone was plotting to kill my best friend through burning.

"Most of them just say 'I know'." Robin said, hanging me one of the sheets of paper.

It was a newspaper picture of Batman, Robin and Batgirl but Batman and Batgirl had been crossed out in red pen. The words 'I know' were written above Robin's smiling face.

"What do you think it means?" I wondered.

"I think Zucco knows who I am." Robin admitted.

I jaw dropped.


End file.
